Be My Pretend Boyfriend?
by Rainpath-Lizzie
Summary: Max was trying to get away from Sam. Again. This time she escaped into a club, and in a desperate attempt to avoid him, ends up asking a random stranger to be her pretend boyfriend to get rid of him. That stranger just so happens to be Fang…
1. So The Story Begins

**I own nothing! Disclaimer for whole story, but I'll put another at the beginning of the last chapter.**

Max POV:

Sam was following me… AGAIN. That boy just can NOT take a hint! At first it was kind of flattering, him asking me out, but after the third time, I just wanted to smack him silly. I almost did on several occasions. Only Nudge, my best friend, and Angel, my little sister, stopped me.

Nudge is African American, with her dark skin, brown eyes, and brown, curly hair. She's 22, like me. Angel, bless her little heart, is six, and, well, angelic. Her blonde curls framed her small face and huge, blue eyes like a halo. Our brother, the Gasman (or Gazzy) is an older, boy version of her. He's eight.

Anyway. My name's Maximum Ride, but most people just call me Max. I'm tall and thin- 5'11, with an athlete's body. I have brown eyes and blonde hair with a dark, brown layer underneath.

So- back to Sam. He's been following me around since the latest rejection, popping up out of no where at the strangest times. He has tortoiseshell eyes and chestnut hair, and is about- oh, say, 5'8. At first he was cute, sure, but I didn't want to date him, and still don't. So that's how I ended up here, in this club- The Asylum, appropriately. The pounding music and flashing, multicolored lights weren't helping my growing headache. I decided that I needed a drink, and headed over to the bar.

I plopped down onto the first empty stool I found and rubbed my temples. The dark-haired man sitting next to me turned his obsidian eyes on my own.

"Rough day?" His voice reached me through the music.

"You have _no_ idea." I muttered darkly, closing my eyes. I thought I saw the corner of his mouth twitch, but took no notice of it. I sighed, looking around, and spotted a familiar, chestnut head dangerously close. "Crap." Well, I didn't _exactly _say it like that, but let's just pretend I said crap.

"What?" The stranger again looked at me with those dark eyes.

"Nothing, just a guy that's been stalking me this past month!" I said with false cheer and a bright, fake smile. Then I had an idea. "But there _is_ something you can do to help."

"What?" he asked again, warily this time. Probably because of my sudden, mischievous smile.

"Well… be my pretend boyfriend to get rid of him?" I said in a rush. I put on one of those big, cheesy smiles and a hopeful expression.

"Hmm… What's in it for me?" he asked, and I was thrilled that he was playing along.

"Five bucks?" I bargained, holding up a bill.

"Ten." I was about to protest but saw that Sam had wandered closer.

"Done."

**Yes, I'm evil. Very, very evil. But I'll do my best to update soon. Tell me what you thought! I'd like at least one review per chapter, please. Otherwise I'll be evil-er! And not post the next chapter! I'll try to estimate when I post the next chapter- Sunday, maybe? (You know, if one person reviews.) As in, 2/13/2011. If I don't, I apologize in advance. So, till next time, my reader(s)!**


	2. Wacked Up Froot Loop

**Oh, my gosh. I feel so loved! **_**Thirteen**_** reviews the day after I posted the first chapter! So, I decided to update early.**

**Okay, so:**

**roylpain: ****thanks for being my very first reviewer!**

**Kenikitten**** & OCs: I am indeed a girl. I'm also glad you can do math.**

**desperatelyobvious****: I'm just getting into writing and figured I'd get most of the descriptions over with ASAP because I was so excited to start with the main story. And yes, Fang was cheap, but he's interested in Max. She probably wouldn't have liked him as much if he'd charged her a small fortune.**

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Recap:

"_Well… be my pretend boyfriend to get rid of him?" I said in a rush. I put on one of those big, cheesy smiles and a hopeful expression._

"_Hmm… What's in it for me?" he asked, and I was thrilled that he was playing along._

"_Five bucks?" I bargained, holding up a bill._

"_Ten." I was about to protest but saw that Sam had wandered closer._

"_Done."_

**Now, onward to the story!**

I glanced over my shoulder again. Sam was maybe seven feet away, chatting up a big-busted blonde. "Showtime! Let's see how those acting skills are." I whispered.

"So, who's this stalker?" the stranger murmured, sliding closer and putting his arm around my shoulders.

"That's Sam," I inconspicuously pointed him out.

"Him? He doesn't look like much."

"He's not, I guess. But I'm not trying to beat him up; I'm trying to get rid of him! I've been attempting to be the bigger person lately, and not just beat my problems up, preferably with a stick." He raised his eyebrows at me, and I raised mine right back. "What? There's nothing that can't be solved with duct tape, a stick, and/or chocolate. I would know." He rolled his eyes, but I saw a glint of humor in them. "So, what's your name, anyway?"

"Fang. Yours?"

"Max. Maximum Ride." I said. So, the mysterious stranger had a name- Fang. Anyone else, I would have laughed. But 'Fang' suited the stranger. Besides, most people scoffed when I announced myself to be Maximum Ride. "It suits you." I voiced my thoughts.

"That Sam guy- he's coming closer." Fang said.

"Hmm. Okay, we should stand up, act like we're going to leave." One look as I slipped off of my chair confirmed what I dreaded: I'd been sighted. Now was the time to act couple-y. Fang slung his arm across my shoulders and I wrapped mine around his waist. I hadn't noticed how tall Fang really was. He was taller than my 5'11. I'd say about 6'4. We made our way toward the exit.

So far, so good. I didn't look back- I had to keep up the act.

"Max!"

I cringed. So close to freedom, and yet so far. I composed my face and turned around, removing my arm from Fang's waist and taking his hand. "Yeah? Sam, right?" I said, keeping my expression and tone light. Finally he seemed to notice Fang.

"Who are you?" Sam asked, as if it wasn't obvious. Maybe he really was that oblivious.

"Max's boyfriend." Fang said with a smirk. I had a sudden urge to giggle uncontrollably while smiling hugely when he said that. As I fought to suppress the feeling, I noticed a steady current of electricity that seemed to run between me and Fang; it was strongest where our hands were linked. I decided to ignore it when I realized I had become detached from the conversation. Sam had asked me something.

"Sorry, what?" I questioned oh-so-intelligently.

"I _said_, 'Since when have you had a boyfriend?'" Sam spat, rather annoyed.

"Oh, for a while. I'm surprised you didn't know, considering you've _stalked_ me for the past month!" I screeched the last part. "C'mon, Fang, let's leave this asylum!"

"You haven't heard the last of me, Maximum Ride! Mark my words!" Sam yelled after us, in true Froot-Loop-Super-Villain manner. It was ridiculous, but his words gave me a sense of foreboding.

Jeez. Someone needs to cut back on the crazy juice. "Thank you _so_ much," I told Fang, "here." I handed him a ten-dollar-bill.

"Thanks. And if you ever need my help again, give me a call," he winked, slipping me a piece of paper with a phone number on it. I opened my mouth to reply, but he was already gone. I walked to my car, smiling to myself, and programmed the number into my phone. I might just take Fang up on his offer.

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**Goodness! That was a **_**looong**_** chapter! So, Sam is one wacked up Froot-Loop-Super-Villain, huh? Remember, one review for this chapter, or no uppy-date! Yeah, I don't know. Anyway, all of MR belongs to James Patterson, but the part about whacking people with sticks and the part about duct tape, sticks, and chocolate is all mine.**

**Next update: hopefully somewhere around 2/20/2011. But, if I get at least 21 reviews for this chapter, I'll put up the next chapter **_**tomorrow**_**, as a Valentine's Day present. Oh, and one person can review like, twice, and I'll count them both for the 21 as long as they don't say the same thing. But I won't count any more than two! The next chapter is when things get interesting toward the end…**


	3. And The Plot Thickens

**Holy. Crap. I **_**LOVE**_** you guys! Not in the creepy way. I'll do this for all holidays, but on my birthday and Christmas it'll be more than 21. Ok. Shout outs!**

**PurpleTea88: thank you for your kind words and constructive criticism. I really am trying to make longer chapters and shorter Author's Notes. I just ramble **_**so**_** much! I'm glad you enjoy my recaps. I know how hard it is to remember what happened in the last chapter a week after I've read it without a memory jogger. I don't mean this as an excuse, but I am only 13, (and have been for a couple months!) so homework's a big time-consumer and a bummer.**

**Nighthawk21: because I like Froot Loops better than Coco Puffs. And besides, "one wacked up Coco-Puff-Super-Villain"? Just doesn't have the same ring to it.**

**gracefuldarkangel: I love the idea, but Iggy has a specific role to play. Don't worry, Iggy lovers! He's coming in this chapter or the next!**

**All right! Next chapter! Woo!**

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Recap:

"_You haven't heard the last of me, Maximum Ride! Mark my words!" Sam yelled after us, in true Froot-Loop-Super-Villain manner. It was ridiculous, but his words gave me a sense of foreboding._

_Jeez. Someone needs to cut back on the crazy juice. "Thank you so much," I told Fang, "here." I handed him a ten-dollar-bill._

"_Thanks. And if you ever need my help again, give me a call," he winked, slipping me a piece of paper with a phone number on it. I opened my mouth to reply, but he was already gone. I walked to my car, smiling to myself, and programmed the number into my phone. I might just take Fang up on his offer._

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**Okay, **_**now**_** the next chapter:**

"Give me _all_ of the details!" Nudge squealed, after I had relayed my story to her. She had ambushed me last night when I got to the house we shared with Angel and Gazzy. I had ignored her, going to bed and putting off the interrogation for as long as I could. It was morning now, and Angel and Gazzy were at school. I rolled my eyes.

"Like what?"

"Like what? _'Like what'_, she says! Like, what did he look like? What was his name? Did you get his number? 'Cause if you did, you _have_ to call him! ZOMG! You guys could start dating! And then get married! Can I be a bridesmaid? Or the Maid of Honor? Oh, and Angel could be the flower girl, and Gazzy the ring-bearer! It has to be amazing- someplace tropical, like the Caribbean, or Hawaii, or Fiji. I've always wanted to go to Fiji. I love those flower necklaces you get as, like, a welcome. I think they're called leis. Oh, wait. That _is_ Hawaii. There or Fiji? You're right, Fiji. And-"

"_Nudge!" _I couldn't believe this! All I had told her was that I went to a club to escape Sam and paid a stranger ten bucks to pretend to be my boyfriend for like, five minutes. Now she was already planning my wedding! "Jeezum! We're not getting married!"

"Okay, okay." She mumbled something else that sounded suspiciously like _'Not yet, anyway.'_ She saw me looking at her skeptically. "Anyway! _Details!_"

"Fine, fine! Gosh. His name's Fang. He's tall- taller than me, even. He has black hair that kind of fell into his eyes, which were dark as midnight. Now that I think about it, they had gold flecks in them. And… yeah, I got his number." I flinched. Nudge would definitely-

"WHAT? CALL HIM! _**NOW!**_" Oh, jeez. I seemed to be thinking that a lot lately. "No, wait. You don't want to seem too pushy or desperate. That's a bad image. Did it look like he was from around here? Maybe he'll be at a public place, like the mall! We have to go there! If we bump into him, I'll go somewhere else and act like I'm distracted. Ooh! You should invite him to coffee or something! Or he'll invite you, if he's interested. I won't even mind if you ditch me, you haven't been on a date in a long time, ever since, y'know, he-who-must-not-be-named. I mean, not Voldemort, but, you know-"

"Yes Nudge, there's a reason His name should not be said in my presence. We agreed we would never speak of this again." I said with a sharp look.

"Right. Anyway, get dressed and let's go!"

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Nudge had dragged me to pretty much all of the stores in the mall. My arms were about to fall off from all of the bags I was carrying, my feet were on fire, and my stomach was eating itself. To sum it all up, I was miserable. Finally, Nudge noticed the death glare I was sending her way.

"Uhm… I'll take these to the car!" She said, grabbing my bags and running effortlessly in four-inch heels out of the mall. I growled incoherently and stalked off to the only place I wanted to go. The food court.

I decided that I wanted pizza, and headed over to Sbarro. I got my food and headed over to Dippin' Dots- after a Nudge Shopping Experience, I needed lots of sugar, so I got two larges, and pretended one was for someone else. As if! I sat down, ate and threw away my trash without disturbance. In a considerably better mood, I went to find Nudge. I turned around, aiming to head for the entrance, and ran into something hard. I could've sworn there wasn't a wall there…

"Oh. Fang. Hehe. Fancy seeing you here."

"Yeah. Not exactly my scene, huh?" Fang said, in all of his dark glory. He did stand out, sort of. He obviously wasn't Goth or Emo, but still wore his usual black attire. "But then, it isn't yours either, is it?"

"No. My friend Nudge, who I seem to have lost, dragged me here."

"So, while we're here, wanna grab a coffee or something?" The irony! Who knew that in Nudge's ramblings there could be a prediction of the future? A _correct_ prediction, at that.

"Sure." I smiled. One side of Fang's mouth lifted slightly, and the whole world got brighter.

"Shall we?" He offered his arm.

"Yes, we shall." I announced, taking it. I saw Nudge out of the corner of my eye, and waved. She gave me an excited look and bounced up and down clapping her hands. I knew I would have to describe the coffee date later, in extreme detail, but I just couldn't bring myself to care.

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Sam POV:

So, Max had herself a little boyfriend, did she? Well, Sam would make sure that she ended up with him, one way or another. He smiled venomously to himself as he unlocked The Door. He stepped in, and it closed behind him with a loud, ominous bang.

"So, you require my services?" A hooded figure stepped out of the shadows.

"I need you to get rid of someone for me." Sam slid a photo over to the grim reaper look-alike. Of course, he could only assume that there was a skull under the dark cloth. No one had ever seen His face. No one even knew his name. They all just called him Reaper.

"What for?"

"That's none of your business. Just kill him." Sam snapped.

"And the pay?" Reaper began to sharpen a huge axe on a stone wheel. Sparks flew in the darkness, beautiful but the result of something deadly.

"Here." Sam threw a bag at his feet. "The other half comes when the job is done."

"Excellent." He rumbled as he examined the contents. Sam couldn't help but shiver at the malice in the deep rumble of his tone. But there was no turning back now. The deed was done.

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**Ooh, creepy, huh? I tried to make this one longer. The next one will definitely be long. Hopefully I'll keep writing longer chapters. It's more fun, and I think of a worse cliff-hanger the longer I write! So, who's Reaper? Shout out to whoever gets it right in my next Author's Note! Btw it's not who you think it is… Next update: around 2/20/2011. Remember, one review! Also, if you're **_**dying**_** for some Lizzie writing, check out my new story- it's complete! Till next time, my readers!**


	4. Thicker Than Pudding

**You guys are _so_ lucky that I am busy tomorrow, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. I don't like updating late, and this wasn't originally going to be an early update, but…**

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_**READERS! DO NOT SKIP THIS! **_**I have a proposition for you. You all know that my next update is in about one week- the 27****th****. Well, I have decided that if I get 200 reviews for my story altogether, I'll post three chapters on that date. That's right, **_**three**_**. If I get 150, I'll post two. But I'll tell you what- **_**if**_** I get the opportunity to post three chapters, **_**and**_** my story, "Dylan's Flying Lessons" gets ten reviews, I'll post all three on the 26****th****. Does that work for you?**

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**Okay, I'm feeling dumb. What's the difference between hits and visitors?**

**Anyway.**

**PurpleTea88: I hope to make more cliff hangers! And I'm just so exited about my story that I don't know if I can wait a whole week each time to update! And I'm slowly but surely getting better at making longer chapters. This one, I hope, will be fabulously long!**

**desperatelyobvious: thank you! And yes. Yes I did have to put a cliffy. And as for how Sam knows Max… it'll all play out. YOU CANNOT SEND REAPER TO KILL ME! HE IS UNDER MY CONTROL! AT THE MOMENT! BESIDES, YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT WAS IN THE BAG! Actually I don't either, yet. Sorry. Too much sugar. P.S. My computer hates your pen name, because it keeps annoying me with the green and red squigglies!**

**Dust Mikkie Tedmik: I'll try to use more detail. I usually have a harder time describing the setting than the characters, though. It's one of my quirks.**

**The people who guessed right, whether they guessed or not: aberlasters, desperatelyobvious, Cadisha Ora Rhaksha Caden, and PurpleTea88.**

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Recap:

"_Sure." I smiled. One side of Fang's mouth lifted slightly, and the whole world got brighter._

"_Shall we?" He offered his arm._

"_Yes, we shall." I announced, taking it. I saw Nudge out of the corner of my eye, and waved. She gave me an excited look and bounced up and down clapping her hands. I knew I would have to describe the coffee date later, in extreme detail, but I just couldn't bring myself to care._

_Sam POV:_

"_That's none of your business. Just kill him." Sam snapped._

"_And the pay?" Reaper began to sharpen a huge axe on a stone wheel. Sparks flew in the darkness, beautiful but the result of something deadly._

"_Here." Sam threw a bag at his feet. "The other half comes when the job is done."_

"_Excellent." He rumbled as he examined the contents. Sam couldn't help but shiver at the malice in the deep rumble of his tone. But there was no turning back now. The deed was done._

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**Onward, and blah, you know the drill:**

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Fang POV:

Fang thought of the girl he had pretended to date at the bar last night. Max. Max, Max, Max. He couldn't get her out of his head. Maybe a trip to the mall- a place he rarely went- would take his mind off of her.

"Yo, Iggy! I'm headed out!" he called to his twin brother. They were complete opposites- fraternal, obviously. Iggy had strawberry blonde hair to his black; pale blue eyes to black; light, light skin to tanned. They were similar in only height, but still Iggy was taller- about 6'6.

"Ack! FANG! Did you move the sofa?" There was one more thing- Iggy was blind. "Aw, never mind. Pick up some milk while you're out! Aw, man! I sound like Mom! If I ever do that again, slap me. _With your hand!_"

_Gladly. _"Fine." Fang was a man of few words.

* * *

That was earlier. Now he was wandering aimlessly around an over-crowded mall. And what else added to his _fabulous _day? It didn't even take his mind off of Max. Then his day brightened significantly because, the next thing he knew, said female ran into his chest.

She blinked, surprised. "Oh. Fang. Hehe. Fancy seeing you here." The melody of her voice was music to his ears after so long. He cursed himself inwardly. _Don't get so poetic over some _girl_, Fang! …But it's not just some girl. It's _Max.

"Yeah. Not exactly my scene, huh? But then, it isn't yours either, is it?"

"No. My friend Nudge, who I seem to have lost, dragged me here." Max said grumpily.

"So, while we're here, wanna grab a coffee or something?" he said, careful not to look or sound too hopeful.

"Sure." She grinned, and Fang let one side of his mouth lift slightly.

"Shall we?" Fang offered his arm; it was corny but it worked.

"Yes, we shall." Max's grin became a smile, and Fang fought the urge to blink repeatedly. She really was amazing.

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Max POV:

I felt all jittery inside, but I couldn't tell why. Probably some random girl emotion, like the sudden urge to say 'Awww!' when you see a puppy or something else adorable. Or something. Just a thought.

"I know just the place to go. What do you say we blow this pop-stand?" Fang asked with a sideways glance.

"Sure. I hope you brought your car, because Nudge probably saw me ditching her to go with you, even though she didn't mind, and ditched me, which basically means that I'm car-less." I said in annoyance.

"Um…"

"It's fine. Just lead the way." I think I confused him, but he didn't show much emotion.

"Okay. The car's this way." So there _is_ a car! The jittery-ness still hadn't gone away! It was strongest where our arms were linked. Hmm… file away for future experimentation. I must have had a big, goofy smile on my face, because Fang was looking at me funny. I didn't attempt to control my euphoria. It must be the sugar. Yeah, that was it.

_Nice try, Max, _my inner voice piped up. _You're not high on sugar, for once. You're high on Fang's presence. And maybe a little sugar. But mostly Fang._

I like to think of it as a magical cricket that crawled in my ear while I was sleeping in that tree… sometimes it refers to itself as a "conscience". Whatever that is. I still think of Jiminy Cricket. I just call mine "the Voice" usually. The only name I could think of was Bob, but I couldn't tell if it was a boy or girl, so "the Voice" worked, too.

All this time I had been letting Fang pull me along, and while I was arguing with the Voice, a silence had fallen, but it wasn't awkward; it was comfortable.

We got to his car before I even noticed that we were out of the mall. He chivalrously opened the door for me, and over-acted, bowing and sweeping his hand toward the interior. But he had a mocking smirk on his face, and his eyes were swimming with humor. I stuck my tongue out and got into the car.

I know what you're thinking. 'You just met him yesterday! It's like getting in a car with a stranger! OMG!'

I just-so-happen to be a trained fighter, thank you very much. I could kick any grown man's butt. _And_ I'm a legal adult. So there.

Fang got in the car, and he started driving. I stared out the window, hypnotized by the shapes blurring by, and started when Fang spoke. "Uh, Max? Ma-ax! MAX!"

"What?" I said stupidly.

"We're here." Oh. Huh. Must've zoned out there.

"Okay, let's go." I hopped out of the car- a black Ford- and grinned. Another thing I seemed to be doing a lot of lately. I looked around.

We were at a cute little diner-café among the trees. It was a secluded place, and almost seemed mystical, like an angel would come floating down any minute. Fang held this door open for me as well, and we drifted through.

We strolled through the nearly empty café to the wooden hostess' desk, to a lady with dull, brown eyes and artificial, red hair. I wonder who in their right mind hired her. Hey- the Red-Haired-Wonder! She had a uniform on, but it was unbuttoned one too many times. She had her pants rolled up so that they resembled a bathing suit bottom. The worst part- I could practically see the thought bubble over her head when she set eyes on Fang.

"So, how can I help you?" her tone was thick with implications. "I'm Lissa. Are you expecting more people?" She unsuccessfully tried to flirt and bent over, trying to show off her miniscule cleavage. I sniffed.

I was extremely surprised when Fang wrapped his arm around my waist and rested his chin on my head. His cool breath sent shivers down my spine, in a good way. "No, just a table for two." Then he whispered to me, "Play along, I don't want a stalker, too." I was only half sure he was joking with the stalker part.

"That would be unhelpful," I breathed back. "But then I'd just have to stick around." His mouth twitched. Lissa had been watching us with a frown.

"Come on, then." Do my ears deceive me, or is that a sour note I hear in her voice? The thought made me far happier than it should have. Fang kept one arm around me as we followed her to a corner in the bright, cream and brown place to a two-person table made of the same wood as the front podium thing. Fang pulled my chair out for me and sat in his own. "Your server will be out in a minute." Lissa left with a scowl.

I was already looking at the menu, thinking about cheesecake. Our server stepped out a few minutes after. She was dressed appropriately and had a sunny smile on her face. I immediately took a liking to her. "My name's J.J. and I'll be your server today. Hehe. That rhymed! Are you ready to order?" I looked at Fang and nodded. He turned to J.J.

"Yes, we are. Max?"

"I think I'll have the cheesecake- a big slice- and some black coffee, please." I hoped she got it when I said I wanted a big slice- I was hungry, despite my Sbarro trip. Fang's eyes showed slight shock, so I knew he was surprised for some reason.

"I'll have the same." Hmm. Maybe that's why. J.J. left, and Fang and I chatted casually for a few minutes. I found out that he was 22, like me, and older by a couple months. His last name was Walker. He had a twin brother, and they shared an apartment. His parents were vacationing in Europe for three years, so he rarely saw them. He worked as an accountant, but his boss was really cool, he said, so he could come and go as he pleased. Fang also told me that it was just to pay the bills, until he found a job he really enjoyed. I kept expecting his word supply to run out.

I told him that I didn't really work-a few odd jobs now and then, and about Nudge, Angel, and Gazzy, our house, (which was five stories) and how we got so lucky in this world. Our parents had died shortly after I turned 18, leaving the house, their belongings, and loads of money (like, billions) for us. Nudge had moved in with us when we were 16. Her parents had died in a car crash, and she had no place to go. She was my best friend ever since kindergarten and my parents loved her like she was their own. She's lived with us from then on.

By the time our cheesecake came, it felt as if I had known Fang forever. We ate in a cozy silence; I found that it was easy to just _be_ around Fang.

I had just taken the last bite when the door opened, and a strangely cool breeze blew in- it was at least eighty degrees outside. It was when I automatically glanced toward the door that I saw why. I froze in place before quickly turning away. There was no mistaking those familiar, turquoise eyes and that dark blonde hair. And there was definitely no mistaking the long, white, jagged scar across his cheek.

Oh, no. Oh, _no_.

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**I'm evil, right? Hehe. I had too much sugar! You can probably figure out who the dude mentioned above is. I hope everyone took the time to stop and read my proposition. If not, scroll up and read it! Next update- 1/27/2011. But it could be 2/26/2011. All you have to do is… REVIEW!**

**Crap. I swore to myself I wouldn't become one of those authors who kept going "REVIEW, REVIEW, REVIEW!" at the end of my chapters. Oh, well. I see the appeal now. Till next time! -Lizzie**


	5. Max's Past

**Hehe. I knew I wouldn't get to 200 reviews, but I felt like making an awesome proposition. So I did. Hehe.**

**People:**

**Bandgeekclarinet14: Thanks for your review and being my 100****th**** reviewer! **

**ISuckAtUsernames: I know what you mean about sugar highs. Sugar and I are like this *crosses fingers*. BUT if you kill me with the kitchen knives, you won't get to know what happens next…**

**desperatelyobvious: I think your username is fine – I was high on sugar, and I tend to ramble a LOT more when I've had sweets. As for how she knows Dylan… this chapter unveils her past.**

**Just Another Dove: I know that POV means point of view, and that Sam and Fang's 'POV's are in third person. The story is mainly revolving around Max, so I wanted it to be the most personal for her. Other characters' POVs just mean the story is revolving around them for the moment. And thanks for all of the reviews! It means so much to me when people review that they like my story.**

**Finally, I would like to thank Just Another Dove and AwesomeCookie for reviewing "Dylan's Flying Lessons".**

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Ricola! I mean, Recap!

_By the time our cheesecake came, it felt as if I had known Fang forever. We ate in a cozy silence; I found that it was easy to just _be_ around Fang._

_I had just taken the last bite when the door opened, and a strangely cool breeze blew in- it was at least eighty degrees outside. It was when I automatically glanced toward the door that I saw why. I froze in place before quickly turning away. There was no mistaking those familiar, turquoise eyes and that dark blonde hair. And there was definitely no mistaking the long, white, jagged scar across his cheek._

_Oh, no. Oh, _no_._

_

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_

**I'm sure you're almost dead with suspense, so to ze story!**

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My past just had to freaking come back and slap me when I found the potential for happiness.

And to add to the stress? Fang had noticed me tense up and followed my gaze. He looked ready to beat someone up. I liked how it was for me.

"Why don't we go now?" I asked, my light tone forced. Then I hissed, "_Don't_ look at him when we walk past. If you're the target…" I shuddered. "If you're the target, it'll only make it easier for him." He must have noticed the pleading in my eyes, the desperate note in my voice, because he nodded, got up, put his arm gently around my shoulders and led me out of the restaurant. We had already paid the check, and tipped J.J. well, due to my liking of her. The Red Haired Wonder ignored us as we left, and as we got farther away, I slowly relaxed into Fang.

I didn't want to part just yet. Fang had the same idea, because after driving only a short while, he stopped at a local park.

It was beautiful- flowers of all sorts next to fountains with cute little sidewalks and benches, all in a glistening meadow. I hadn't realized that I was trembling until Fang led me to one of the benches and pulled me to his chest. I curled up to him and shuddered one last time, taking deep breaths. "Thank you. I… I-"

"Shh. You don't have to explain anything until you're ready." Fang had a surprisingly gentle side. We sat there for I don't know how long, and he just held me. I was angry at myself for being weak, but it was overshadowed by content.

When I had finally calmed down, I peered up at him sheepishly. "Thank you. I haven't had a breakdown like that in… well… I've never had a breakdown like that. I guess I should tell you." He tried to protest, but I put my hand to his mouth. "No, you need to know this. I was sixteen. His name is Dylan, and at the time he was twenty." And I told my story.

* * *

_-Flashback-_

"_I don't think we should be doing this," I murmured, nervously glancing around. "It doesn't feel right."_

"_What are you talking about? We're just avenging for the customer. An eye for an eye, right? He paid, and so we do the dirty work."_

"_We… we aren't hurting anyone, right?"_

"_Of course not. We're just taking them to a place where their brains will be fixed, and then they'll be good people again." _Don't trust him, Max_, the Voice had said, _He's a liar_. The Voice had never been wrong before, but Dylan's voice was just so soothing, so hypnotic._

"_O-okay. Lookout as usual?"_

"_That's right. You know what to do. I don't need to remind you of the little… predicament you're in, do I? I mean, your salary is helping your parents so much, what with them being broke and having four kids and themselves to feed. What's a little cash among friends?"_

_My expression turned icy. "Nothing. Nothing at all."_

"_Good."_

* * *

_-A year later-_

_I was on lookout duty, as usual. It had become a routine thing- stand at the entrance, watch for people coming, run in and warn Dylan if anyone came. Then something changed. There was never anyone around when we were on missions. But a car pulled up, on this street that nobody ever visited._

_I ran inside, and searched frantically for Dylan. I saw a silhouette of him from a doorway and ran in that direction… only to come to a halt inches before I was in sight. What I saw was like a shadow-y movie playing out in front of me. The Dylan-silhouette struck another man's shadow with something suspiciously club-shaped. The man collapsed, and Dylan bound his hands, feet and mouth. He took out his phone and made a call. It was so deathly quiet that I could hear both ends of the conversation._

"_The School; Ari speaking."_

"_The quarry has been captured and is ready for pickup."_

"_Excellent. What mutation is being attempted this time? Another fish-boy? _That_ turned out well." Ari snorted._

"_I think I'll try something more dangerous this time… something that'll be a challenge for you and your little Eraser buddies to hunt down."_

_Cruel laughter sounded on the other end before Dylan hung up._

"_Well, Max, you can come out now." I shakily stepped out of the darkness._

"_You said we wouldn't hurt anybody. And now I found out you're _mutating_ them? You're a monster."_

"_That may be true, but you can't do anything about it. Think, Max- you're a smart girl. Do we leave any evidence behind? Ever?"_

"_That doesn't mean I can't quit. I don't need your money any more." My parents had found good paying, stable jobs._

"_But who's to say that your parents are safe?" My blood ran cold. "You see, we need you Maximum. It's all part of the bigger picture."_

_I ran as he took a key out and began scratching something on the wall._

* * *

_-Another year later-_

"_That's it, Dylan! I quit! I sat there and _watched_ you kill that man! I've seen the experiments you do on people, and I don't want any part of it! I can't take it anymore!"_

You're in too deep, Max_, said the Voice. _Don't quit now. You'll be sorry. _Great. Now even the _voice_ in my _head_ was against me. But I didn't care. I couldn't do this anymore._

"_Your poor, dear parents. And they had so much to live for." Dylan was mockingly sympathetic. I turned on my heel and walked away. I would keep them safe. I had to. As soon as I was out of the sight of the building, I ran. I ran hard and fast, straight home. Nudge had taken Angel and Gazzy to the park, and my parents were at work. But I had to make sure everyone was safe. I checked my phone for messages- there was one from Mom. I put it to my ear and turned a corner._

"_Hey, honey I just wanted to let you know that your father and I got off work early! I hope you're home soon! Love you!"_

_My face paled and I pushed myself harder. Just one more block… I burst through the front door and raced into the living room._

"_No. No_. _NO!" Tears streamed down my face. Engraved into the wall, by what was no doubt the very key Dylan carried with him for this purpose, was the word, "Reaper". That and the bloodstains told me everything I needed to know- Jeb, Valencia, and unborn baby Ella were dead._

_I had stumbled upon Dylan later that day- sometimes I think of it as fate, sometimes as a coincidence. My sorrow was replaced with a murderous rage. I had walked into an alley- not wanting to cry in view of the public- and look who I had just-so-happened to run into. I snarled insults incoherently at him._

"_Oh, dear, is Maxie a little upset? Aww. Might it have something to do with Maxie's parents' disappearance? I think it might." He smiled cruelly. The world was tinted crimson._

_I shrieked in fury and launched myself at him._

_His smile grew and he whipped out the key. Now that I saw it up close, I noticed that it was shaped to a savage point at the end. My eyes widened and in a split-second I changed course. Instead of killing me, the key scraped deeply into my side, and blood started gushing out. I shakily straightened and went after him again. Again I was cut._

_I was more wary the next time I lunged. I had lost a lot of blood, but I was bent on revenge. I used that to my advantage, but I had to push down my anger to see clearly._

_My vision was unclouded by red and replaced with a cool clarity. I bared my teeth and acted as if I was going to lurch forward again, but instead I ducked and grabbed the key._

"This is for my parents_," I hissed in his ear. And the key descended upon his perfect face._

_I got a sick satisfaction from hearing his scream._

* * *

I took a deep breath and peered into Fang's eyes. I searched them and was surprised to find gentle acceptance. Tears sprang to my eyes, but there was one problem. I. Don't. Cry.

Ever.

So I swallowed the lump in my throat and gave him a tentative, thankful smile. He stood up and offered his hand.

"Where are we going?"

"Wherever our feet take us." Fang gave me a lopsided smile, and my heart sped up. I placed my hand in his, and he pulled me to my feet. We started walking, our fingers intertwined.

**Iz adorable, no? Well, the last part. Love, love, LOVE it! It wasn't as long as I'd like it to be, but... Anyway. So, now you know a little more about Max's past. I'll probably be updating more on Saturdays, now though. Next update: 3/5/2011. I can't think of anything else to say, surprisingly. Till next time, I suppose. Bye!**


	6. The Firefighter Pole

**PEOPLES! IT'S BEEN SO LONG!**

**Lol. Anyway, I wanted to thank anyone and everyone who reviewed with this poem:**

**Roses are red, violets are blue; this poem is lame, and so are people who don't review!**

**Jeez. I have some problems. *No comment needed from you peoples.***

… **And I still don't know the difference between hits and visitors.**

**Okay, this chapter is basically descriptions, so I went ahead and posted it as a thank-you for the 100 reviews. Sigh. I'm too nice.**

**P.S. For those of you who are reading this and it is complete and, according to me right now, are in the future, I posted this on the same day that I posted the chaper "Max's Past". Or chapter five.**

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I was bombarded with questions when I got home.

Worst of all, Angel and Gazzy were home, so of course they had to know, too. We didn't keep secrets from each other.

"Where were you, Max?" Angel's big, blue eyes sparkled with curiosity.

"On a date with Mr. Tall, Dark and Handsome," Nudge said, wiggling her eyebrows. Gazzy and Angel giggled.

"I don't know if you could call it a date," I said. "And besides," my tone darkened, "Dylan showed up." They gasped. We had all agreed not to revisit that time period. It turns out that _it_ had revisited _us_.

"It… could have been someone else," Gazzy said, ever optimistic.

"I don't think so. I've never seen another scar like that, especially not in the same place. But I don't think he saw me. For now, we're safe." It was time to be leader. Unfortunately, that meant taking their minds off of the bad stuff. So it was Maximum pain. As in it was painful for me. "So, Nudge, I suppose you and Angel want me to describe my 'date' word for word." They squealed. "Gazzy? Do you want to come, too? You can see if you approve of him." Gazzy grinned. He always tried to be the man of the family.

We headed up to my room. Actually, it was more of a whole floor. My floor. Our house was huge- five stories with a giant, green lawn and a tree house out back. All four of us loved to go into the tree house. Sometimes we even called it 'headquarters' or 'HQ'.

Anyway, the first floor was all of the essentials- a kitchen, a living room, a bathroom, a laundry room, a dining room and the den. When Mom and Dad were still alive, we had all lived down there, not knowing of the floors above. (I _did_ sort of wonder, though, what with it being so big on the outside and so small on the inside…)

The second floor was… empty. We hadn't decided what to do with it yet, so… the walls and floors were bare.

The third floor was Nudge's "room". There was a middle part with a TV and some couches. It had thick, thick, hot pink carpet; it was comfortable enough that you didn't need a sleeping bag if you were to camp out. There were two doorways from there- one to Nudge's room and one to her bathroom.

Nudge's room was just so _Nudge_. It was pink and frilly and girly and just… ugh. It gave me a headache just being in there for more than 30 minutes.

Her bathroom was similar- pink and girly. I swear, it had every freaking beauty product, soap, shampoo, conditioner, lotion, etc. there is on this entire planet.

The next level up was Angel and the Gasman's floor. Theirs was in the middle, protected from below and above. (Sadly, a possibility in our life.)

The central room was their play room. Toys littered the thin, cream carpet. It was very bright and cheerful, with the large windows and white walls. They, sadly, also had a flat screen in this room. There were seven huge bean-bags scattered around it, all different colors: hot pink, lavender, dark purple, light blue, grass green, pure black and bright yellow. We all used our own bean bag whenever we sat in here. Nudge's was hot pink. Angel's was lavender. Mine was dark purple. Gazzy's was grass green. There were three extras.

We were really weird about our BBs. (Bean bags, in case you hadn't caught on.) We always, ALWAYS sat in our own. If we really wanted to get on each other's nerves, we'd sit in theirs. But that would start a prank war, resulting in me stashing my BB in my room under lock and key to protect it from harm. BBs were always the first to go, and I had no intention of buying _another_ one. This was my seventh. I would guard it with my life. Do you have any idea how hard it is to find this shade of purple? They don't even make it any more.

There was, in the middle of the room, a glass table, which Angel and Gazzy liked to put different things on and lie under. At each side of the room (opposite of each other) there were cubbies and toy boxes; the Gasman's were blue, red and yellow, and Angel's were pink, purple and light green.

Five doors led from this room. The first was Angel's bathroom. It was lilac, light pink and white. She had all of the things a normal, six-year old girl would have: bath toys and necessities, like shampoo, conditioner, etc.

The next door led to what was now Angel's room. (It was, at first, a large storage closet.) She had always liked small, cozy places. The only piece of furniture was her bed, which took up the entire floor. It was a pile of blankets, pillows and stuffed animals. At least she didn't have to worry about falling off.

The third was Angel's closet, formerly a bedroom. Her clothes, books, shoes- all of it was in here. It had the same color scheme as her bathroom.

Gazzy's room was next. I wasn't even sure what color the room was any more. I usually tried to avoid going in there- the stench made my eyes water. He had a bed, a closet, and dressers for his clothes… and a table with, no matter how much I confiscate them, bomb supplies. Nudge, Angel and I can only hope that he won't blow anything up… again.

His bathroom wasn't quite as stench as his room, what with all of the air fresheners and Febreze and whatnot. It was white and dark blue. He had bath toys and soaps.

The very top floor belongs to… you guessed it! Moi!

I've always loved heights, so the north wall was an awesome idea of mine. We had knocked it out, replaced it with mostly glass, including a glass door, and put a balcony. There were, of course, curtains, but I didn't know how many people would be at this level, especially when we lived in such a sparsely populated area. (The city was at least an hour's drive away, and there was a forest bordering part of our yard.)

My central room's carpet and walls matched the Gasman and Angel's. I, too had a flat screen and a sofa, but they were by the south wall. 2/3 of the room was covered by said carpet. The other 1/3 was a glossy, hardwood floor. Some days I slid across it in my socks. I don't know why I wanted it hardwood, but it felt right.

There was a doorway leading to a hall. The first door was my room.

I had dark purple carpet, which matched my bean bag. The walls were an off white, except my door and my closet which were a few shades lighter than my carpet. The rest of my room, i.e. a bed, two nightstands, two lamps, a dresser, a desk and a computer, has a purple, white and black color scheme.

The second- right across from it- was my bathroom. It was simple and, of course, matched my room color-wise. It only had a shower, a toilet, a sink and a cabinet-y thing under the sink. I had shampoo, conditioner and soap. That was it.

The last door was hidden. It was at the very back of the room, covered by a purple curtain. It was the place I went when I wanted to escape. It wasn't much, but no body knew about it. They assumed it was a window. But the door led to my own private balcony, no more than four feet across and four feet wide. It was concrete, but the railing was a timeless, black, metal design.

I led them into the center room and onto the white couch, avoiding the metal pole running through a five-foot-diameter hole to the first floor. Oh, did I forget to mention? We have a firefighter's pole thingy to get to lower levels. An elevator? Ridiculous. A pole you slide down five stories? Why not?

We're weird like that.

"Okay," I sighed, plopping down on my favorite cushion, "what do you want to know?"

* * *

**That description was incredibly hard for me to write. I hope you liked it. Still updating on 3/5/2011.**


	7. Fang's Initiation

**I hope you did some serious booty-kissing for my whole two chapters thing last time.**

**Cos I could do it again if I feel loved. But not a mostly-description-chapter-that-I-apologize-for like last time. A real second chapter.**

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**desperatelyobvious: I completely understand where you're coming from. That is exactly why I posted it along with my other chapter last time. Everyone would be REALLY angry at me if I posted one lame-o description chapter for my weekly one. This way, you got two chapters, and I was able to get the main description over with.**

**Just Another Dove: You're quite welcome. And yes, I have read ANGEL. I'm very, very sorry to say that (**SPOILER**) your friend is right. And I too, screamed, "NOOOO!", but nobody was home, so I didn't get any weird looks.**

**ISuckAtUsernames: GASP! Chocolate withdrawal? **clutches heart** I'm not even kidding- I believe that it's a serious crime to deprive one of chocolaty goodness. And feel free to kill Dylan, but after he's done his role-play thingy.**

**PurpleTea88: I don't particularly like chapter six, because I'm not too good at describing places like houses. Therefore, my word choice isn't as good as it normally is, because most of the time I'm thinking two things- one is, "I can't wait for this to be over so I can write the rest of the story!" the second isn't really a thought- I'm imagining what happens next. So, sorry if I don't sound really-super-cool-and-smart. As for grammar… I don't really worry about it too much on the Author's Notes, and I tend to write a lot of fragments when I'm in 'sarcastic mode'. If that's what you mean.**

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* * *

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_**AND I STILL DON'T KNOW THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HITS AND VISITORS! C'MON, PEOPLE! PLEASE TELL MEEEEEEE!**_

_**

* * *

**_

Recap: (Huh, reminds me of kneecap.)

_I led them into the center room and onto the white couch, avoiding the metal pole running through a five-foot-diameter hole to the first floor. Oh, did I forget to mention? We have a firefighter's pole thingy to get to lower levels. An elevator? Ridiculous. A pole you slide down five stories? Why not?_

_We're weird like that._

_Okay," I sighed, plopping down on my favorite cushion, "what do you want to know?"_

_

* * *

_

"EVERYTHING!" Nudge burst out. "Where did you go? Was it romantic? Did you go out to eat? Did you hug him goodbye? Did you hold hands? _ZOMG!_ Did he kiss you?" Nudge gasped. "Was it amazing? Did you get all tingly? Was it like all of those romance novels say it is? He's your soul mate! Oh, I wish I could find my soul mate as easily as you had. I mean, I've gone on plenty of dates- WAY more than you have! If I had found my soul mate on my second date, I would be happily married. But then I wouldn't get to live with you guys! So I'm happy I didn't find my soul mate yet. But what if we could all live together in this house? It's more than big enough! We could-"

Gazzy slapped his hand over her mouth. I had let her go on for way longer than usual, in hopes of delaying my story. But she had gone from my date to getting married and living happily ever after in this house together in under 30 seconds. I'm pretty sure my eye was twitching.

"Hey, Max? Why is your eye twitching?" the Gasman asked.

"No reason. Okay, Nudge, let me think. Umm… a café; kind of; yes; yes; yes; no; I don't know; I don't know; I don't read romance novels; stop jumping to conclusions, he's not my soul mate; and… you've been on too many dates. Does that answer your questions?"

She had a thoughtful expression and was counting on her fingers. "Yes. Wait a minute! _WHAT DO YOU MEAN HE HASN'T KISSED YOU YET!"_

I flinched at her thunderous volume and countered, "It means he hasn't kissed me! And what do you mean by 'yet'?" I became suspicious of the glint in her eye and said loudly, "So, the story!" I got all the way to the part when we walked off holding hands before my eyes clouded over and I was lost in the moment.

* * *

_We walked for hours- until it got dark- but it wasn't boring. Fang and I talked as we wandered aimlessly around the park. The majesty hadn't faded from it as the sun set- it grew, and I gasped in delight when the fountains lit up, the water sparkling._

"_It's like a dream…" I breathed. Fang chuckled._

"_I know what you mean," he murmured back. I shivered; it was getting cold. Fang smiled tenderly and wrapped his arms around me. I rested my head in the crook of his neck and breathed in his heavenly scent. We had stopped in the center of the park, and the five illuminated fountains surrounded us, bathing us in a magical light. Blues, purples, pinks, greens and yellows seemed to float around. I was speechless-it was like our own personal light show._

_It was a perfect Hallmark moment. I had an overwhelming urge to sniff and wipe a fake tear, but I figured that it would ruin the moment, so I didn't. See? I'm above being immature. Mostly._

_Okay, only occasionally, but still. I'm not ruining the moment._

_I stood there in Fang's arms, and I felt warm and _safe_. Tremors ran down my spine, but it wasn't from the cold. I had the warm fuzzies in my stomach. For the first time in years, I was happy and content. Then I yawned, effectively ruining the moment._

_Well, it was better than the whole fake tear thing._

"_Tired?" Fang asked._

"_Maybe a lit-" I yawned again. "A little." Fang chuckled and we headed back to his truck._

"_Let's get you home, then." I got a warm, glowy feeling that I had experienced when Angel or Gazzy hugged me and told me, 'I love you, Max.', but it was multiplied by a tenfold._

_He opened the door to his truck for me- again- and I sleepily got in. I heard the driver's side open and shut and snuggled into the arm that Fang rested on the console, closing my eyes. I gave him directions, and then my breathing deepened, and before I knew it, he was gently shaking me awake, telling me that I was home. I blinked, bleary-eyed, and stared up at him._

"_Come on," he whispered and took me into his arms._

"_I can walk," I said, but I think it sounded more like, "I cnn wfmk."_

_He set me down on the porch, and I was suddenly awake enough to not want him to go. "We'll have to do this again sometime," he said, and I agreed, giving him my number._

_I enveloped Fang into a hug and kissed his cheek, and said under my breath, "I had a lot of fun."_

_Then I walked into the house, leaving him standing there with a grin building on his face. I slid against the wall and breathed out, closing my eyes. (Y'know, the way they do in movies.) And I couldn't help the huge, cheesy grin that spread across my lips or the fluttery feeling in my chest._

_

* * *

_

"And… that's what happened." I finished lamely. Nudge and Angel squealed so loudly and shrilly that I had to cover my ears, and I saw Gazzy do the same. I was bewildered- I would expect this from Nudge, but Angel?

Seemingly reading my thoughts, Angel said, "I'm just excited that you finally found someone, Max." _Finally?_ I was _twenty-two_, for Pete's sake! "Fang is so perfect for you that I had a Nudge moment." Oh, jeez. If _Angel_ had a Nudge moment just because of Fang and me, then… jeez. The only thing left to do was see if Gazzy approved. Technically I didn't need his approval, but I liked to have it. What kind of leader would I be if I dated someone that my whole family didn't like?

"Gazzy? What do you think?" I could feel the hope in my expression.

"I think… he sounds okay. I wanna meet him, though." Gazzy looked thoughtful. I couldn't help it; I beamed at him.

"Sure. I'll make sure and tell Fang that he'll be meeting the man of the house, so he'd better be on his best behavior." I winked, thrilled that the Gasman was so accepting. I gave him a hug and whispered in his ear, "I hear his brother's a masterful pyromaniac," knowing that it would help his opinion of Fang considerably. It did, which was good, because Fang was coming over in a week.

* * *

_**one week later **_

The doorbell rang. "That's Fang!" I called as I slid down the fire pole through the other floors. I landed on my feet (don't land wrong-it's painful) and dashed to the door.

He was lounging on the frame. "Hey, Max." he said straightening up.

I smiled. "Come in. They're all really excited to meet you." On cue, the very trio came sliding down one-by-one. I introduced them as they stepped away from the pole. "Meet Angel, Nudge, and the Gasman, or Gazzy."

"Yo," Fang said.

"Ohmygosh! Hi! I'm Nudge! Sometimes people call me the Nudge Channel, but I can't figure out why- I think it's maybe because I talk so much, but then maybe it's because I'm pretty enough to have my own TV channel. I don't really know. Some people say I ramble, but I don't think so- I just try and have a decent conversation. If you barely talk, then I don't think you let people know your full potential. At least, that's what I heard on TV. Or something. Whatever. You know what? Sometimes people say I talk too much! It's so not true. I don't-" I wonder if Nudge somehow stole Fang's word supply, or maybe his desire to talk way before we knew him.

Angel put a hand over her mouth. "I'm Angel. It's nice to meet you." She smiled sweetly up at him. I could see his eyes soften. She had that affect on people.

"I'm Gazzy." He said, puffing his chest out. Fang held his hand out to shake.

"Fang." Gazzy stared intently at Fang for a moment, sizing him up.

Finally he glanced up at me and nodded his consent. "I like this one, Max." he said, giving me two thumbs up.

I grinned at Fang mischievously. "FLOCK! INITIATION TIME, PART ONE! GROUP HUG!"

We had been called 'the flock' since Angel's birth. Mom and Dad always said, _"You almost fly toward one another so quickly when you sight each other that we might as well call you, 'the flock'!"_

Fang was not a huggy person. He turned into a statue in the middle of our group, but we wrapped our arms around him nonetheless. If he was going to be a Ride, then he would have to complete all five parts of initiation. We (meaning Nudge, Angel, the Gasman, and I) each made up a part of initiation, and one we all agreed on. Angel's, the group hug, was part one. It actually wasn't a bad idea, because if you can handle being smushed by our awesomeness, you can handle a lot.

"Come on, Fang! You've got to finish initiation if you don't want to be banished! I mean, you don't want to be banished, right? That'd suck. You wouldn't get to come back, and I think you're the first guy outsider that we all like. Not _like_ like, but like. You know what I mean. But I sure do feel sorry for you, not having any resistance built up for-"

"Nudge! Do you want to give it away?" I rolled my eyes. "Anyway. PART TWO- TO THE FOURTH FLOOR!"

We climbed to Gazzy and Angel's floor. "Now," my solemn tone echoed through the house, "choose… _a bean bag_."

"_Duh, duh, DUUUUH!"_ the Gasman's sound effects were, for once, useful. Fang raised an eyebrow. I stared at him, completely serious, and I knew that the others were, for once, serious as well.

I got out the three extra BBs. Fang chose black.

No freaking duh.

That was the part that we had all agreed on. "Do you swear upon your life to protect your bean bag, sit on it, and treat it with the utmost respect and care?"

He nodded.

"Then, as leader of the Rides, I declare this BB property of Fang Walker!" my voice rang out, creating a nice effect. We all cheered. While Fang was distracted, I made hand motions behind my back to my siblings, so when I yelled, "NOW!" they lunged at Fang, pushing him back into Gazzy's room, along with the stink bomb himself. "PART THREE!" I bellowed through the door, "WE HAD MEXICAN FAJITAS AND BEAN BURRITOS FOR LUNCH! HOPE YOU SURVIVE!"

One looong ten minutes later, we got up from our BBs and moved the sofa out from in front of Gazzy's room. Fang barreled out, sucking in clean air, followed by a smirking Gazzy.

"Fresh air!" Fang's eyes were bulging out of their sockets. He glared at me. "Never. Again."

You can guess who came up with part three.

"Not unless you deserve punishment. Now, PART FOUR!" Fang was getting smart- he studied me warily. This was my favorite part. "You're going to climb the pole up to the top floor, which is, lucky for you, right above us. Then, you're going to come all the way down and use your momentum to power slide while playing the air guitar." I came up with this part.

We watched, amused, as he climbed up, then slid to floor one and called up, "OKAY! COME ON DOWN!"

He looked so ridiculously not-Fang-y that I laughed my butt off. He looked almost scared to hear the last part. It really wasn't bad at all compared to the rest.

"NOW FOR THE FIFTH AND FINAL STAGE! Kneel before me, Fang," as he did as he was told, I took out Angel's fairy princess wand and tapped each of Fang's shoulders. Nudge came up with this. As she put it, _"All good initiations end with tapping someone's shoulders with a sword. But I wouldn't trust you with a sword, so we're using Angel's pink, sparkly wand."_

"As leader of the flock, I now dub thee… FANG RIDE!" We all cheered, and I pulled Fang to his feet, kissing his cheek. "Welcome to the clan!" I giggled uncharacteristically.

"Glad to be here," he said sarcastically, but I could see true sincerity in his onyx eyes.

* * *

**I think Nudge was right about the "dubbing" part. It just doesn't feel official until you're whacked on the shoulders with something sharp or resembling a stick. And I cracked up at the mental picture of Fang power sliding and doing the air guitar. **

**NU- (Next Update) 3/12/2011. But I was serious about the whole "If I feel loved enough." thing. Till next time.**

**-Lizzie izzy out.**


	8. Iggy, and Fangypoo the Vampire

**Okay, I'm posting the next chapter today to tell you that you (my readers) and I are VERY, VERY, EXTREMELY LUCKY.**

**My computer gave me: (duh, duh, DUUUUH!)**

**THE BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH!**

_**Wait for it…**_

_**THREE TIMES!**_

**So, because I'm so very relieved, I'm posting this. Enjoy and REVIEW!**

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**By the way, sorry for any confusion. Max and aren't pretend dating anymore- she already paid him the ten bucks. Ever since the coffee date, they've been kinda going out. Okay. Hope that clears things up.**

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**desperatelyobvious: *read above* I dunno about the whole "dating and item" thing, but then I haven't reached that stage yet. And if you found that last chapter funny, then this one will have you cracking up.**

**maximum love: Yes. Read below.**

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**P.S. I don't own Twilight. Stephenie Meyer does. (You'll see…)**

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Recap:

"_As leader of the flock, I now dub thee… FANG RIDE!" We all cheered, and I pulled Fang to his feet, kissing his cheek. "Welcome to the clan!" I giggled uncharacteristically._

"_Glad to be here," he said sarcastically, but I could see true sincerity in his onyx eyes._

* * *

"Fang's coming over today!" I yelled down the hole, and I hopped after my echoes. Nudge hated it when I did that- she said you should grab onto the pole, and_ then _go down, not vice versa. I preferred to just jump and then grab on about half-way to the bottom, so that you didn't go splat. Splatting was uncomfortable. I was a hypocrite, though, because I didn't let Angel or Gazzy do it. Oh, well.

What I didn't tell them was that he was bringing his brother Iggy. So when I opened the door I casually said, "Hi, Fang. Iggy."

"Fang!" three voices chorused from above. No, not angels, but there_ was _Angel. Iggy decided to have a little fun with them.

"YO!" he bellowed, not sounding Fang-like at all. Three mucho confused heads popped out of the ceiling.

"Who are you?" Gazzy piped up.

"What do you mean? I am the Great and Emo Fang!" I had a hard time keeping myself from snorting, and even the real Fang had trouble not rolling his eyes. Then Nudge noticed Fang standing in the background.

"No, Fang is right there." She pointed at him, and Iggy turned around pretending to look for him. He turned back and faced Nudge.

"I can't see him," he said solemnly.

Nudge, not knowing of his blindness or of the fact that he was joking, scathingly replied, "What, are you blind or something?" I peeked at Iggy, not sure if he was offended.

But apparently this was the response he was hoping for. "What chu talkin' bout, girl? You ain't nevah seen a blind man be-fo?" **(A/N: No offense to anyone. **_**I**_** wouldn't find it offensive, but… I don't get offended easily.)**

"You're not black, Iggy," Fang said in a bored tone.

Iggy's sightless eyes widened. "What? Why didn't anyone tell me?" he said in his normal tone.

Meanwhile, Nudge focused on his eyes, then hers widened. "Oh, my gosh! I am _sooo _sorry! Oh, please don't be mad at me, I had no idea! I-"

"Hey, no harm done," Iggy smirked, stopping her frantic apology.

"Oh, good. I hate to think that I was so mean without even asking or knowing! I'm usually not like that-"

"Okay!" I said loudly. "Why don't we all introduce ourselves to Iggy here?" So they slid down and introduced themselves. Then Gazzy… well, he… he lived up to his name. We all ran out of the room, but Iggy collapsed and began clawing at the ground, dragging himself toward us.

"Gas—mask!" he gasped dramatically and dropped his head clutching his throat, pretending to be dead. Fang really did roll his eyes then.

"Get up, Iggy."

"I can't, I'm dead." Nudge, Angel, Gazzy, and I giggled at this.

"Then get un-dead."

"Like a vampire? Well, you'd have to bite me for that, Fangy-poo." We were cracking up now. Fang's expression wasn't helping. He wore a look that said quite plainly, _"Not again."_

"I don't know why you insist that I'm a vampire." Fang was irritated.

"Look at yourself! You dress all emo, girls constantly swoon over you, your eyes are black, unlike a_ normal _human's… and remember that one guy that came up to you that day? 'Bite me, PLEASE! I don't want to live any more!'. Even your name! 'Fang'. How can you get more vampire-y than that? It's like you jumped right out of Twilight." We were clutching our sides.

"One, I dress fine. Two, you're jealous. Three, my eyes are_ perfectly _normal. Four, that guy was a nut-job, and five, 'Iggy'? What are you, a fruit?" I couldn't breathe- the hysteria was too much for me to do anything but not roll around like Gazzy and Angel were.

"Pwned!" Gazzy managed to choke out in-between laughs. Iggy huffed.

"Was not!"

"Was too!"

"Was not!"

"Was too!"

We left the two pyros (against our better judgment) to themselves. What could go wrong? They didn't even know each other's addiction to fire. That was the absolute stupidest thing we could've done, because the next thing we knew…

_**BOOM!**_

And there goes our den.

Crap.

Apparently, Gazzy wanted to know how Iggy could make bombs when he was blind.

And thus, a beautiful friendship was formed. If by beautiful you mean extremely messy and explosive. Gazzy and Iggy were an unstoppable force. I was really beginning to worry for the safety of the public when we went out.

Nudge asked me how Iggy knew what Fang looked like. He answered from across the room:

"It's easy- I just eavesdrop on everyone's conversations. My hearing's way better than yours."

I kept that in mind whenever I was around him.

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The next day it was Iggy's turn for initiation.

Oh, how wonderfully amusing this would be.

Nudge was the first to realize that Iggy was in need of initiation. We were all sitting in the semi-destroyed den when she suddenly gasped and started mouthing words frantically.

I don't know if you knew this, but as much as she talks, Nudge is terrible at mouthing things. So, as far as I could tell, she was saying,

"Fax! Eggy miss smart cough tea smock! Abbreviation! Sniggy peed abbreviation!"

I gave her a WTH expression. With an annoyed sigh, she ran out of the room.

"What was that all about?" the Gasman asked.

"She's obviously trying to tell us something," I glanced at Iggy. She must've been trying to keep it from him. But why? Then it hit me, and a wide, evil smile spread across my face.

"I dunno, she's kinda weird," Iggy pondered. Oh, Iggy. You have no idea what you're in for.

At that moment Nudge sprinted back into the room and thrust a piece of paper at me. It said:

_INITIATION! :D_

I wasn't sure about the whole smiley thing, but she was right about initiation. I held the paper up so that the flock could see it. Simultaneously they all smiled the same evil smile that I was wearing.

"Care to tell me what's going on?" Iggy said exasperatedly.

"Oh, you'll find out," I grinned even more evilly, if that's possible. "PART ONE, STAT!" I burst out suddenly, and we all tackled Iggy- even Fang.

"GAAH! YOU PEOPLE ARE CRAZY! GET OFF ME!"

"Welcome to initiation, Iggy. If you survive, you'll be one of us. If you survive." I cackled.

"Hahahaheheheheh… I'm just gonna-" he bolted for the front door.

"AFTER HIM!"

Two small, blonde bundles of fury pounced on him from behind, knocking him to the ground.

"Now, we take the captive to the fourth floor!" I grabbed an Iggy leg. Fang grabbed the arm diagonal from me, Nudge grabbed the other leg, and Gazzy and Angel grabbed the last arm. We marched up the stairs. He struggled, but it was hopeless. We- minus Fang- had grown up restraining one another constantly. Iggy was an apprentice in a room of masters. Well, and Fang, but he had more practice being around us.

"Okay! Now, Iggy, this is very, VERY important." He nodded.

"Choose… the yellow bean bag or the blue one."

"Blue, DUH! Wait, a bean bag?"

"You got a problem with that?" it was _Angel_ that spoke. _Angel_.

"Uh, nope; uh-uh, not at all. Er, what's part three?"

My eyes widened. "He's on to us! STAGE THREE, GO, GO, GO!"

Gazzy jumped onto Iggy's back and covered his mouth, the rest of us shoving him back, closing the door and pushing the sofa against it. "WE HAD MEXICAN AGAIN! POOR GAZZY CAN'T HELP HIMSELF! OH, WELL, YOUR PROBLEM NOW!"

"WHA-" he was cut off by his choking sounds. "What is THAT? It wasn't even this bad yesterday, and that was-"

More choking sounds. Then silence.

"So… who wants to play Go-Fish?"

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Iggy log-rolled out of Gazzy's room when we un-barricaded it, coughing. He lay unmoving for a few minutes. I was about to poke him with my toe when:

"I don't think that even your vampire bite could bring me back this time, Fangy-poo."

Fang rolled his eyes. Again. "He's fine."

"Okay, then. Now for my favorite part! PART FOUR!" I explained part four to Iggy, and the rest of the flock slid down. I followed suit.

"WHEEEE!" Iggy was sliding down the pole, and landed in a power-slide. I snorted at the face he made while doing the air guitar. It was one of those Elvis Presley sneers, with your lip kinda curving upward.

It was so _Iggy_.

Finally, I tapped each of his shoulders. "As leader of the flock, I now dub thee… IGGY RIDE!"

We all cheered. Then Iggy got up, snatching the wand from my hands.

"I would like to thank a few people for this award. Without them, it wouldn't have been possible, and-" he frowned, his hand brushing the wand up and down. "Is this a… a _wand?_ A _sparkly_ wand?"

The flock burst out laughing at his expression.

"Yes, Iggy, yes it is. Welcome to the clan."

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Life was perfect; I didn't let down my guard, but I relaxed and had fun after the first month of Dylan-free bliss. We hadn't seen hide nor hair of him since that day at the café.

Until we went to the carnival.

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**Pfft. You didn't think I could take the assassin dude out of the picture, did you? That'd be way too easy and un-suspenseful. NU- still 3/12/2011.**

**'Till next time!**

**-Lizzie**


	9. It's More Of A Purpley Color

**Woo! Suspense! Yeah! *evil smile***

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**desperatelyobvious: thank you. And with all the drama in the world nowadays, it's really not that hard to make some up.**

**xXmarycherrybangbangXx: this early update is for you! Mostly! Thanks for agreeing with me, and most importantly…**

**THANK YOU FOR BEING THE ONLY ONE THAT ANSWERED MY QUESTION!**

**Just Another Dove: this chapter is funny too. Cliffies are fun, chocolate does that to me too, and yes I eat a lot of it. As for how I make this stuff up… my mind is a strange, random place- in other words, it just comes to me. Honestly I haven't read too many carnival Fanfics, and I still don't exactly know what cliché is, but I like carnivals. Carnivals are awesome. You can do some funny stuff at carnivals.**

**PurpleTea88: hehe. I almost typed 'PurpleTree88'. I'm glad you don't want Fang to die, because if you did, YOU might bite the dust due to crazed fangirls. No worries- Max and Fang WILL kiss, I just don't know when. Maybe the next chapter.**

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Recap:

_Life was perfect; I didn't let down my guard, but I relaxed and had fun after the first month of Dylan-free bliss. We hadn't seen hide nor hair of him since that day at the café._

_Until we went to the carnival._

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It all started when Angel saw a flyer for a local carnival that happened annually.

She gasped. "We have to go there!"

I couldn't find it in me to refuse. Childhood only lasted so long.

And that's the extremely boring story of how we got here. Imagine the absolute biggest carnival you can. Now multiply that by ten. You're not even close to the sheer mass of it. It even had a circus in it! How weird is that? Think about it! A _circus_ in a _carnival_. When I was little, I used to think that they were the same thing!

Ugh. Anyway, at least Angel and Gazzy were having fun. Angel had gotten her face painted to look like a tiger and was currently licking a vanilla ice cream cone. Gazzy's face was strikingly camo, like he had always wanted to do, and he had a chocolate ice cream.

They were walking along, eating their ice cream, being all content and quiet, when- seemingly at the same time- they spotted a ride. Not just any ride, but that one where you're strapped into a swing and flung around in a circle until some fat guy's chair-thing broke, he flew off and landed on some poor, unsuspecting kid, and it was shut down until further notice.

You know the one.

Then the four adults were, somehow, being towed toward the wheel-of-death-for-the-unsuspecting-kid by a six year old and an eight year old. I could see why they liked it- if I could fly, I imagine it would be something like this, but less constricted and… dizzy.

We then proceeded to go through the rest of the carnival, hopping on and off, in and out contraptions left and right.

At bumper cars I dominated, terrorizing all within my domain.

At the hall of mirrors, our ears bled from Nudge's nonstop chattering and occasional screeching at our appearances.

At "the Night Coaster" (a roller coaster in the dark, as the name implies) Iggy and Fang were the only ones able to keep silent, the first of the two smirking as we got off and saying, "What's the big deal? A roller coaster in the dark? Try life in the dark!" but he wasn't bitter.

At two-story-building laser tag (this place was _really_ awesome, I'm telling you) Gazzy somehow managed to sneak up behind everyone and zap us all.

Finally, at the Merry-Go-Round- which Angel made us all go on- we decided to choose horses that suited us, for the fun of it. Yeah, we're immature; got a problem with that?

Nudge chose a medium, brown horse with pink hooves, feathers in place of the mane and tail, and lots of jewels on the saddle and reins. Angel chose a small, white horse with a blue saddle and reins, and a golden mane, tail, and hooves. Fang chose the largest horse, which was black with black hooves, a black mane and tail, and a silver saddle and reins. Gazzy had a small, gray horse with a darker gray mane, tail and hooves, and gear. Iggy had a large, cream colored horse with a light brown mane, tail and hooves. His gear was yellow. My horse was a large, light-colored chestnut with a dark brown mane, tail, and hooves. It had a white blaze coming down its forehead, and still darker brown gear.

When the Merry-Go-Round started, pandemonium broke loose.

Fang turned around so he was riding backwards. Silently.

"Can't you go any faster, you stupid horse?" Gazzy kicked his horse as if it was real.

Nudge got a cramp in her leg and had it in a painful position behind her head trying to get it 'un-cramped', as she put it. While singing "Home on the Range".

Iggy stood up on his horse and bellowed, "What, you never seen a blind man ride a horse standing before? What's wrong wit chu, foo?"

And Angel, my sweet little Angel, stood up and balanced on one leg, giving me a grin and holding onto the pole while doing 'the dancer' pose from yoga.

I examined them all carefully, and then decided.

If you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

So I climbed the pole and hung upside down from the red bar that goes in a circle to raise and lower the plastic animals. I swung my arms back and forth and joined Nudge in singing.

After the fifth time we rode it, (the last time we all sang along- yes, even Fang) the manager dude kicked us off.

Loser.

We strolled along talking and trying to decide what best resembled the color of manager dude's face.

"A cherry!" the Gasman insisted.

"No, way, it was definitely fire-truck red." I countered.

"I don't know, it was kind of a dark purple-y color at the end," Nudge said thoughtfully.

Fang and Angel nodded in agreement.

"Well, I think that it was bright blue. Like a smurf." Iggy said. I rolled my eyes.

It was in the evening, when Nudge was complaining about her hair, that the kids spotted the circus. With an almost intangible nod, the two began pulling us toward the red-and-yellow striped tent.

"Max! I want to ride an elephant!" Angel bounced up and down once we were inside.

"Max! I wanna ride a clown!" the Gasman shouted. I looked at him strangely.

"Sure, Angel. Gazzy… umm… I'll tell you what- if you can catch a clown, you can ride one." I knew that he could probably manage to corner one, but as long as I had nothing to do with it…

"Yeah! C'mon, Gasser, I'll help you!" Iggy. Of course- who else? They ran off.

I rolled my eyes and turned my questioning gaze on Nudge. She acted offended, "What? You seriously think I'm going with those two pyros? They'll end up _killing_ me, or at the very least getting me arrested! No, I'm going with you three, thank you very much."

Fang and I chuckled, and Angel giggled. "Okay, but you have to ride the elephant." I was doubtful that she could in those heels, but I probably shouldn't be.

Nudge took a deep breath. "If my only alternative is babysitting Gazzy and Iggy, then lead the way." Wow. Nudge must really value her bomb-free (so far) reputation.

"Oo-kay. Come on, Ange, let's go ride the elephant."

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We had lots of fun riding the elephant. Or so I'm told by an ecstatic six year old and and equally happy twenty-two year old. Fang just sat there, swaying with the gait, seeming ever bored. "I never knew that riding an elephant would be so much _fun_! I mean, I thought that they were just big, clumsy, stinky animals, but they're really smart, and pretty, and even kind of graceful! Did you see her eyes? It was like she _knew_ I was afraid, and was extra gentle just for me! Don't you think so, Max?" Great. Now Nudge was going to talk about elephants for the rest of the week. Fabulous.

"I had a good time, Max," Angel said sweetly.

"I'm glad you did, honey." I smiled.

"Let's go to the Ferris Wheel now," her eyes glowed hopefully at me. "Nudge could ride with me, and you and Fang could ride together." It did sound like a good idea.

"We have to find Gazzy and Iggy first," I decided. "Who knows what trouble those two have gotten themselves into now?"

"I think we should make a quick escape while we can and leave them here. I think I saw a monkey cage over yonder. They'd fit right in!" Nudge suggested. We laughed at that.

"Well…" I glanced right, then left, and I didn't see them anywhere. "Let's ditch 'em!"

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I won't bore you with the details of our excruciatingly long wait in line for the Ferris Wheel. When we FINALLY got to the front, Angel and Nudge pushed Fang and I into a seat and took off! They ditched us while we were ditching Gazzy and Iggy! That's like, a double ditch! No fair!

But before I could throttle them, the bar came down, and we were moving to the top.

"They planned this," I grumbled to Fang.

"It's not really that bad." said Fang "Is it?"

I turned my head toward him, and found that he was much closer than expected. I shuddered at his proximity and whispered, "Not really."

"Then let's just enjoy this moment to ourselves."

A smile creeped its way onto my face, and I snuggled into his side. "That sounds good."

My eyes snapped open when we came to a rickety stop. We were at the peak of the wheel, and I could see clear across the festivities. I peered straight down, and caught a flash of chestnut hair. _No, it couldn't be_, I thought. _Could it?_

I really, really hoped with all of my heart that it wasn't Sam. Because if Sam knew I was here, then it must've been easy for Dylan to track me…

I scanned the crowds, looking for a flash of turquoise, that unusual scar. I thought I saw a big-shoed figure being chased by a smaller, blonder one, but before I was sure, it was gone.

We were almost at the bottom when I saw him. He had been one seat behind us this whole time. Dylan caught me staring and wriggled his fingers. I couldn't hear him, but I could read his lips when he said,

"_Keep on the lookout, Maxie. You and your boyfriend Fangy here are in some trouble."_

I paled, and jumped out the minute the bar was released, with Fang hot on my heels. I ran, hard and fast, to the circus, where I knew the rest of the flock would be.

I got to the tent, and thought what had happened over:

Sam may still be stalking me.

Dylan had somehow found me.

Dylan might be out to get Fang.

My paranoia was creeping toward unhealthy.

And to top it all off, the Gasman swept past us on a clown, yelling, "YEE-HAW!"

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I take it back.

The real cherry on top was when Iggy, on his own clown, rode by hollering at the top of his lungs, "FASTER, SLAVE! _FASTER!_"

Really, Iggy? Really?

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**Well, I dunno about you, but I almost snorted Coke out of my nose when I thought that last part up. Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.**

**NU- I actually don't know when the next update will be- I'm busy all spring break. I am so, so, **_**SO**_** SORRY. To make it up to you I'll give you a preview:**

_I flipped around, and gasped._

"_Why, hello there, little chickie," Ari said, a creepy smile forming on his wolf-like face. "And what do we have here? Five more chickies! It's my lucky day!"_

_I glanced at my flock; they were staring at us with wide, horrified eyes. I'm sure my expression mirrored theirs._

"_Why are you here?" I was proud when my voice didn't waver. "And where's Dylan? I know you work for him."_

"_For him? No, no, no, my dear Maxie. We work together. It's all part of the bigger picture. One that you and your little friends have just become a part of."_

"_MAX!" I heard Angel yell._

_I felt a sharp pain in the back of my head, then one in my arm, and I was out like a light._

**How's that for a prompt? I just made it up. Like, right now. While I'm eating chicken. And I hope the italics captured the attention of those of you who don't read my A/N. Yeah, that's right. I know you're out there.**

**Till the next time. Lizzie out.**


	10. The Hideaway

**Oooh, double digits!**

**So excited!**

**And spring break is over!**

**So NOT excited! Oh, well.**

**And thanks to everyone who helped me reach 150 reviews! That's totally awesome, but I still just don't feel loved enough to post another chapter today. Sorry.**

**URGH! I have to hurry and write this chapter and update because I'm busy this weekend, AGAIN. Well, not so bad for you. Anyway, I don't feel that all of you deserve this early update. Just the people who reviewed. (Especially you who review fantastically every chapter!)

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**Elise The Amazing: I've done that before, but I didn't start making squeaking noises. You should really get that looked at. ;) I take no responsibility for breaking you, 'cause it's just not my fault that my story is so funny. (Well, kinda. But still.) I am honored to be on your favorites list. It makes me feel favored.**

**PurpleTea88: I hope that a fat guy doesn't land on you. Don't worry, the Fax shall happen! I had to pull a few strings, rearrange some others, and be cliché, but I got it in soon! Sadly, my spring break is over. :'( BUT summer is just around the corner!**

**Just Another Dove: I am glad you gave me the definition of cliché. Otherwise I would have just lived my life not knowing, being the lazy butt that I am. (I mean seriously, I was even too lazy to open up a second window and Google it.) More cliché-ness in this chapter, but I have found that I LOVE IT! I'm sorry to hear about your friend, and you made me want a drumstick, too. :p

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Recap:

_I got to the tent, and thought what had happened over:_

_Sam may still be stalking me._

_Dylan had somehow found me._

_Dylan might be out to get Fang._

_My paranoia was creeping toward unhealthy._

_And to top it all off, the Gasman swept past us on a clown, yelling, "YEE-HAW!"

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_I take it back._

_The real cherry on top was when Iggy, on his own clown, rode by hollering at the top of his lungs, "FASTER, SLAVE! FASTER!"_

_Really, Iggy? Really?

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I threw my car keys on the table- we'd just gotten back. The car ride had been long and uncomfortable.

"M-Max?" Angel asked timidly, sounding very small and scared. "What are we gonna do now?"

"Are we gonna have to go back to hiding and disguises?" Gazzy added.

They looked up at me with those huge, blue eyes. I sighed. "I really don't know." I wanted to curl up, go to sleep, and never wake up. Nudge was standing, quietly, scared speechless. Our eyes locked, and I knew in that moment that I hadn't fooled her for one second. She knew that Dylan had brutally murdered our parents. She knew that he and whoever else he had connections with were hunting us like animals.

I took in the faces of my flock - my family, who I loved with my whole being. Angel, my baby; Gazzy, the man of the family since he was so young; Nudge, the bubbly motor-mouth. Then the two new additions: Fang- the silent but deadly hot boyfriend of mine and Iggy the blind, sarcastic pyro. I couldn't let Dylan or Sam or Ari come anywhere near them. I wouldn't.

My whole body blazed with determination.

I _would_ keep them safe.

"Okay, flock," Leader Max was back. "Let's pack up. We're going on a little vacation. 10 minutes to get your things. You know the drill: only the necessities." They rushed off to their floors. I addressed Fang and Iggy. "We'll stop by your place so you can pack. When we get there, you'll have five minutes tops. If you hear any sort of siren at all, grab what you can and get to the car."

"What's going on?" Fang asked calmly, but I could see the wariness in his eyes at our barely-concealed panic.

"I can't explain here or now- we don't have much time," I said heading to the stairs. "I'll tell you when it's safe." As safe as it can get.

I flew up the steps to my floor. I grabbed a small but sturdy backpack and threw in bottled water, a toothbrush, my wallet along with all of the stray cash I could find, and sealed foods- packaged chips, peanuts, etc. I threw on my combat boots and hoodie and jumped, attaching to the pole like a spider-monkey. I stopped to help Angel and the Gasman. They both knew what to pack, and I helped them lace up their own boots tight. Then I ushered them down, shortly followed by Nudge. I had gotten us all the same combats, knowing this day would come, hoping it wouldn't.

Fang's eyebrows rose slightly, but I grabbed his and Iggy's hands and shoved them in my car.

"Angel, sit in Nudge's lap," I ordered and got into the driver's side. Fang got in the passenger seat. I squealed out of the garage and tore down the driveway. We were at Fang's in seconds, and he and Iggy rushed in.

Almost five minutes later, right when I was getting twitchy and about to go pound on the door, they rushed out, diving into the car. I floored it while Iggy's door was still open, and ignored his grumbling and the glare he was sending to my ear.

"Max? Are we going to…?" Nudge glanced left, then right. _"Are we going to the Hideaway?" _**(A/N: Pretend that the italics and underlined stuff is a secret language that only the flock- minus Fang and Iggy- know.)**

I almost smiled. I was so glad they remembered all of the things I had taught them for survival. _"Where else?"_

Angel, noticing the two older guys' confusion, said to me, _"Are we going to teach them?"_

"_We'll have to."_

"_But Max,"_ Gazzy started, _"didn't you always say to only speak in our language if something like this happened?"_

I frowned. _"What else can we do? If They come, Iggy and Fang won't be able to understand the plan. So, we'll teach them when we know that we're temporarily safe."_

Iggy couldn't stand not knowing any more. "What the heck are you guys saying?"

"I wish I could tell you, Ig, but I can't." I lowered my voice. "Look, as soon as we're at a temporary safe house, I'll explain everything."

"Temporary?" he had picked up on the key word.

"Yeah. They'll find us. They always do. We'll have to constantly be on the run." Something occurred to me. "I'm sorry I brought you guys into this. I shouldn't have. But I can't take it back. All I can do is protect you." I shook my head. "Go to sleep, Angel, Gazzy. _It'll be a long day tomorrow."_

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We got to the Hideaway around midnight. It wasn't much- just a one room cottage in the middle of the woods. We had ditched the car a few miles back, walked in random zigzags, and splashed through a couple of streams to get them off of our tails. Now we all collapsed in a dog pile on the floor and _slept. _None of us kept watch that night, which was the stupidest thing we could do.

Fang and I woke at almost the same time. I had untangled myself from Nudge and Angel, and I was almost out of the door when his eyes opened, glinting questioningly at me in the dark. I couldn't tell him apart from the blackness, save for the whites of his eyes. _'Where are you going?'_ he did not speak, but I could read the question in his onyx irises.

I tried to communicate through my glare, _'Nowhere of your concern.'_

Truth be told, I was going to scout the perimeter, see to it that we were really safe for now. I slipped into the night, silently begging him to stay where he was, go back to sleep.

The cool breeze smelled of rain, and it chilled my skin in a pleasant way. The stars shone, pinpoints of light caught in the vastness of the sky. I was bathed in the light of the full moon. The stream's humming soothed me, and I sat by its banks, my eyes trained on the winding, silvery brightness.

Then the world transformed before me. Unnoticed storm clouds crept forward, covering the moon, extinguishing its light. The wind picked up, and the rain smell strengthened. A hand grabbed my shoulder as the first of the the thunder roared through the heavens. In the next flash of lightning, I saw the face, and I smothered the scream building in my throat. It was just Fang. He hadn't gone back to sleep, and he hadn't stayed in the cottage like I'd asked. Typical.

And then it started to rain.

No- not rain. Pour.

It started to pour.

But I couldn't tell. Fang pulled me flush against his muscled body, and suddenly I couldn't find enough oxygen.

"What are you doing out here, Max?" his cool breath blew across my face. I couldn't form words; his nose was brushing my own, and I had to keep from shuddering at our proximity. Two gold-flecked, obsidian orbs stared through me, to my soul, and he leaned closer, wrapping one arm around my waist and cupping the back of my neck with the other. He leaned in closer. The butterflies in my stomach intensified, spreading to my whole body.

Gently, Fang touched his lips to mine. The butterflies turned to tingling, and the tingling to a burning, painless fire. My arms, of their own accord, wrapped around his neck and tangled themselves in his hair. I pulled myself impossibly closer, sticking to him like glue.

And there we were, kissing in the rain. If someone had told me a year ago that I'd kiss the man of my dreams in the rain while on the run from a bunch of maniac psychopaths, I would have slowly backed away, not realizing that they were a psychic.

We kissed for a long time, until the rain stopped. Then he just held me in his toned arms, my eyes closed, head tucked under his chin, and I was content to stay there forever.

Then we were interrupted by the snap of a twig.

I flipped around, and gasped.

"Why, hello there, little chickie," Ari said, a creepy smile forming on his wolf-like face. "And what do we have here? Five more chickies! It's my lucky day!"

I glanced toward the cottage, at my flock; they were staring at us with wide, horrified eyes, surrounded by wolf-men. I'm sure my expression mirrored theirs.

"Why are you here?" I was proud when my voice didn't waver. "And where's Dylan? I know you work for him."

"For him? No, no, no, my dear Maxie. We work together. It's all part of the bigger picture. One that you and your little friends have just become a part of."

"MAX!" I heard Angel yell.

I felt a sharp pain in the back of my head, then one in my arm, and I was out like a light.

I vaguely remember thinking, "WTF?" before I lost my ability to think.

* * *

**Oooh, more suspense. NU- about 4/2/2011.**

**Later.**

**-Lizzie**


	11. Holy Crap, a TWIST!

**Okay, that was the first kissing scene I've ever written, so I hope you liked it. I was typing when I was supposed to be asleep last time, so my A/N didn't say all I wanted it to. Oh, well.**

**Anywho, I made this extra-long, because I want 200 reviews. Is 19 too much to ask? I mean, I've had over 10,000 hits. (Which is totally awesome.) Is it just me, or is that more than enough people? I **_**could**_** be mean and swear not to update until then. I'm just not that desperate, or mean. **_**Yet**_**.**

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**desperatelyobvious: I have but one thing to say/type: :D (pretend the smiley has teeth)**

**PurpleTea88: I appreciate your lack of cursing. (read: holy fudgemuffins instead of, like, something that would require the little star things ***) Um, with the 'flush' thing I was going for 'right against'. I'd heard it used like that multiple times before, so… *shrugs even though you can't see me (which is why I'm typing this)* I've decided that I love clichéd things. I hope you have fun spring break. (But then, of course you will. Disney World, how could you not?) I hate drama and cliff hangers, but I love writing them. Hehe. Oh, well.**

**zaryah: or ZarZar. Whichever you prefer. Thank you so much for reviewing every chapter even though you started reading after the first ten were up! It's really refreshing to find a person who is willing to do that. On chapter five I was just postponing the kiss because I've never written a kissing scene before, so I didn't really know how… I hope the one I wrote was at least semi-good. By the way, happy late birthday! I really wanted to update yesterday for you, but my mom made me get off of the computer. I obviously can't do it every time someone says it's their birthday, but hey- I just can't resist. I love making people's days, especially when it's **_**their**_** special day. **

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**Here's the chapter.**

Recap:

_We kissed for a long time, until the rain stopped. Then he just held me in his toned arms, my eyes closed, head tucked under his chin, and I was content to stay there forever._

_Then we were interrupted by the snap of a twig._

_I flipped around, and gasped._

"_Why, hello there, little chickie," Ari said, a creepy smile forming on his wolf-like face. "And what do we have here? Five more chickies! It's my lucky day!"_

_I glanced toward the cottage, at my flock; they were staring at us with wide, horrified eyes, surrounded by wolf-men. I'm sure my expression mirrored theirs._

"_Why are you here?" I was proud when my voice didn't waver. "And where's Dylan? I know you work for him."_

"_For him? No, no, no, my dear Maxie. We work together. It's all part of the bigger picture. One that you and your little friends have just become a part of."_

"_MAX!" I heard Angel yell._

_I felt a sharp pain in the back of my head, then one in my arm, and I was out like a light._

_I vaguely remember thinking, "WTF?" before I lost my ability to think._

* * *

I awoke in a horribly small cage in a horribly familiar, hospital-smelling place.

"Max?"

"Angel?"

"Are you okay? Where's everyone else? _Report!_"

"I'm fine, a little drowsy, maybe," said Iggy.

"I'm okay," Gazzy whispered.

"I'm fine," Fang.

I willed my eyes to make out the shapes of my flock in the dark. Fang was in the cage next to mine, Iggy on his other side. Angel was across from me, Gazzy by her, and Nudge… "Nudge? Nudge? Where are you?"

"H-here." Ah. The other side of Angel. "A-are they g-g-gone?"

"Yeah. It's just us in here."

"N-no, it's not, Max. Look around," Nudge sounded like she was shaking in fear. I did. There were _things_ laying around, half dead if not already. They looked like someone had tried to combine two things, and it hadn't worked out.

Wait.

A memory flashed through my head. Dylan talking to Ari that day- mutations, he said. They were some kind of experiments, made by sick scientists…

I knew where we were. My heart nearly stopped. We were at the School. We were going to be experimented on.

"Okay, guys, don't panic. We're probably going to be experimented on. We'll probably go through hell here. They're going to poke and prod us with needles, do all sorts of painful tests on us, make us run as hard as we can as long as we can, make us do all these crazy things to test our strength and endurance.

But the most important things to remember are: A.) we're here for each other; we always will be. And B.) no matter what they do, no matter how much you hurt, do _not_ give up; if we give up, we die- so be strong, be strong for us, the flock. Together we will prevail."

At the end of my inspirational speech, the door banged open, and two wolf men- Erasers- stomped over to my cage. They unlocked it and jerked me roughly through the opening. "C'mon, you. You're up first." One of them stuck his hairy snout in my face. I gagged at the smell of rotting flesh.

"Dude, ever heard of a breath mint?" I coughed. He growled and threw me at the nearest wall.

"Be quiet," he snarled.

"Yeah, good luck with that," I choked out and staggered upright, spitting blood at him. "And it's not nice to throw people into walls." The flock gave half-hearted smiles at my attempts at humor. Numero uno was about to strike me again when the other Eraser whispered something to him. He gave me a cruel, toothy grin, which honestly scared me more than the growling and hitting.

The two wolves grabbed one of my arms each and lugged me out of the room and down a long, white hall with tons of high-security, metal doors on either side. I could hear moaning, crying, yelping, growling- you name it- coming from within those doors. It broke my heart, and that's not an easy thing to do. The things here were horrible.

I was stricken again with the familiarity when we passed a white room that resembled a patient's room in a hospital…

* * *

_I blinked, slowly opening my eyes and just waking up. My sides burned, and I had a headache. I noticed two small hands holding one of my own and a larger one holding the other. I saw white all around me, and I wondered if I was dead._

But no, death couldn't hurt this much. And hell is supposed to be red, with flames and lava and stuff. So, I'm alive, _I thought._

_I did a quick check of my body: bandages, breathing tubes, needles or IVs or whatever they're called, headache, burning sides, growing sense of claustrophobia, Nudge, Gazzy and Angel's hands, plastic-y gown with a breeze-_

_Wait, Nudge? Angel? Gazzy?_

_Growing sense of claustrophobia?_

_Plastic gown with a breeze?_

_There was only one possible explanation: I was in a hospital._

_It all came flooding back to me. Dylan, the key, his scream. His running, his driving away, nothing. Waking up here._

_My siblings stirred. I watched them as they rubbed their bleary eyes._

_Nudge did a double take, Gazzy gasped in happiness, and Angel had a delayed squeal- she just stood there, gaping, until her mouth started moving like she wanted to say something in her two-year-old joy. Then she- well, she squealed, which, of course, caused Nudge to join in and Gazzy and I to cover our ears, and a doctor to come in and immediately check what the problem was. All he got was excited squeaks from my two sisters, so Gazzy said, "She woke up," and pointed to me._

_The man came and checked all of the bandages, tubes, needles, etc. attached to me. He was tall, with brown hair and eyes, pale skin, and was wearing a long, white coat. Not too memorable of a person._

"_How are you feeling, Maximum, it is?" he asked. A nurse quietly entered the room and sat down behind him. She, unlike the doctor, was striking, and very memorable. She had long, shiny, black hair, big, sparkling, hazel eyes, and a beautiful, olive complexion. She had a dusting of dark freckles spread across her cheekbones, and her features themselves made her all together gorgeous._

_Oh, great! Just, you know IN PAIN, and with an unpleasant breeze. Not to mention the headache or the pieces of METAL in my body. "Fine."_

"_Fabulous." _Fabulous? Was this guy really a doctor? What doctors in their right minds use the word 'fabulous'?_ "Now, does anything seem… different to you? Or funny in any way?"_

"_Different or funny how?"_

"_Oh, I don't know, um… say…" he suddenly cocked his head and pressed his finger to his ear. "Well, that's all the time we have for today. You will be released in a few days. We're holding you for observation until then." He paused awkwardly. "I'll just be going then."_

"_Wait a minute-" but he had already scurried out of the room. "Well, that was helpful." I grumbled with a frown._

"_Max, you're awake! We were SOOOO worried. I mean, obviously we knew you'd be all right, because, you're the incredible, indescribable, Maximum Ride; but we were still so worried! I know you always say, 'Never worry about me, because I promise that I'll never leave you alone in this world.' but we just can't help it! That is what family is for, right? Mmhm, pffhmm mmm-"_

"_I'm sure Max needs her rest, Nudge," said the nurse._

Thanks,_ I mouthed. Thank gosh that nurse is here to stop the infinite chatter that was sure to have taken place. I would've pulled my own hair out not being able to do anything about it on this hospital bed._

No problem,_ she mouthed back and winked._

She wasn't half bad,_ I decided._

"_My name's Ivy. And before you ask, yeah, I'm a little young to be a nurse. I'm just working part time here for extra credit on my sci- uh, my medical course." She laughed nervously. "Yup. Medical course. Well… gotta go! Bigger birds to fly! I, uh, mean, uh… bigger fish to fry! Haha, yup, that's it! Completely it, nothing to look into in what I blurted out, nothing at all!" Ivy glanced around. "Well, bye!"_

_The door slammed shut._

"_That was… odd," I said slowly. "And I have a feeling that she knows more than she's letting on."_

* * *

_Ivy POV:_

"_Stupid, stupid, STUPID!" Ivy muttered to herself, face-palming with every word. "You always say too much! You slip up just a tiny, tiny bit, then you get nervous, and things spout out of your mouth like… like… a drinking fountain! A drinking fountain that someone has duct taped the little button or lever or whatever down. You're going to be punished for sure!"_

_She was panicking as she hurried down the School's hallway. They knew everything here- there were cameras and microphones everywhere._

_They would lock Ivy in a room with thirty Erasers and chain her hands and feet together so she couldn't defend herself. Then they would let the Erasers do whatever they wanted to her, and rescue her right when she was on the brink of death._

_But death was a blessing here, in this prison. Ivy wished to be free. She wished to be able to roam the forests, her own being. She would catch her own food; she would find her own den, her own water, her own mate. She would live her own life._

_Or Ivy would live with the humans, keeping her more… feline part a secret until she found the right man. Then he could accept her, and they could get married and live happily ever after._

_Yeah, right._

_Ivy knew better. Even if she could escape the School, who would accept her? And even if Ivy could be accepted, who could empathize? She hadn't heard of any other survivors like herself._

_Who was Ivy exactly?_

_Ivy was a panther-human hybrid that this place, the School, created._

* * *

'_Doctor' POV:_

Okay, it was time to initiate the avian experiments_, the whitecoat thought. _The six currently in the 'hospital' sections were the test subjects.

_He marched down to the first four, and hit a big, red button. Knockout gas quickly poured into the room, sending them into La-La Land. He put a gasmask on and entered._

_The whitecoat injected them each with a special syringe. Each syringe contained a different bird gene. They would sleep for an hour, and remember nothing from the time the gas had entered. Meanwhile, the special bird genes would slowly mutate them, giving no outward sign that they were different. It would work as well on the two year old as it would on the eighteen year olds._

_It would be white for the little one, gray for her brother, brown for the brown one, and white, brown and black for the one that was meant to lead them all. He was told that she was the toughest, but he wouldn't know. He wasn't allowed to have opinions. His job was to do his job. And do his job he would._

Besides,_ the whitecoat thought, _it's not me being injected and will have two limbs painfully burst out of my back. So why should I care? It's for the good of science.

_Their endurance, bones, blood, and muscles would slowly morph into something more suitable for flight._

_Then, the wings that had been growing in their backs would break through skin and the process would be complete. It would take four years, but it would be well worth it._

_He chuckled to himself as he exited that cell and repeated the action in the next. He used two different bird genes on the boys in there. They were physically opposite, fraternal twins. One was dark haired, dark eyed, tanned, and soon to be dark winged. The other was light haired, light eyed, pale skinned, and soon to be light winged._

_The whitecoat chuckled again. He'd see them all in four years. They'd see each other, too, and not realize that they were inches from each other not half a decade ago. He couldn't wait to see their reactions._

* * *

Max POV, present time:

That's it! I was treated here for the deep gashes Dylan caused me. Unbeknownst to me at the time, I was hospitalized at the very spot I had been against in the first place! Who knows what they could've done to me while I was there!

There was something else, something fluttering on the edges of my memory, something that I'd forgotten. I remember saying that Ivy knew more than let on, and then another doctor came to check on me.

Wait, wait, wait. I see a problem here. Right after Ivy left, another doctor came in.

But didn't one just check on me? And wasn't the sun just a little more that way in the sky? I don't know if I remember right, but it seems just a little strange. Maybe I was too paranoid. Maybe I wasn't. The so called 'doctors' probably knocked me out and did something horrible.

Crap. I bet those 'doctors' were whitecoats. Just. My. Luck.

I snapped back into reality as Ugly #1 and Ugly #2 tossed me into a dark room and slammed the door shut, enveloping me in blackness. A sudden, blinding light filled my vision- a spotlight.

And there he was. The one person that's caused all of the problems in my life. Dylan.

"How are we today, Maxie? Doing good? Not for long."

"What are you up to?" I spat. Nothing but bad; of that I was sure.

"Well, Maxie, I'm here to explain. You see, today's the day you were here four years ago for the wounds I inflicted on you." He smirked, all too happy that he caused me pain. "As you've probably figured out, this isn't a hospital. It's the School."

"Yeah, yeah, cut the crap. I've figured it out. Now tell me why I'm here."

"Tsk, tsk, Maxie! Patience!" he waggled his finger at me. I wanted to bite it, anything to make him hurt. "It just so happens that every single one of your 'flock' was here at the same exact time!" he chuckled. "'Flock' how appropriate."

I raised my eyebrow. He was having far too much fun prolonging the point of his story. It was almost as if he was waiting for something to happen. He took on a more serious note. "You were all injected with a special syringe, with genes from a certain animal. You've been undergoing a gradual but severe change to become more like that animal."

They were crazy. And my family had been caught in the middle. At least I hadn't dragged Fang and Iggy in- at least they had already been in. Don't get me wrong- it was most definitely not lucky that they were tangled up in this mess, but it made me feel better that it wasn't my fault they were here.

"What animal?" after all, it was a broad classification: mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, insects, and worms.

"You'll see."

I had to know. I might even be okay with it if it was some kind of mammal or bird. But reptiles, amphibians, fish, bugs and worms… I shuddered. I don't know if I could handle that.

Dylan's watch beeped. He glanced at it, and then smiled maliciously at me. "Strap her down, boys. It's time."

* * *

**Holy. Crap. Even I wasn't expecting THAT twist. And I'm starting to think that I don't know how to write anything but cliffies. Huh.**

**Anyway, NU- 'bout 4/9/2011. Tell me what 'cha think. Till next time.**

**-Lizzie**


	12. Whoa, ANOTHER Twist!

**SO sorry for the late update! I decided that I was desperate enough, and then FanFiction wouldn't let me login, and then I had a case of extreme laziness, and now I'm out of excuses. Okay, I have been told that stories can get taken down for replying to reviews, so:**

**A.) I'm not going to reply to reviews any more**

**B.) I will answer questions, but I won't answer like I have been (Ex: Rainpath-Lizzie: blah)**

**C.) I swear that if I did mention you on here that I mean you no harm and I never did**

**D.) I'll still thank y'all who reviewed**

**E.) I don't really have an E, but I really like the letter, so…**

**Thanks to all who reviewed. And, for the record, this was the only story I was going to reply to anyone, anyway, cause it's my first.**

**And, if you were confused, when the doctor came into the story, it was kind of his point of view, but back then. They captured and injected them four years ago. Over the course of four years, they've been changing on the inside- their bones, blood, etc. Now, as the doctor said… something's going to happen. To them. In this chapter.**

**P.S. I am extremely happy to have reached 200 reviews! So, thanks!**

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Recap:

_I raised my eyebrow. He was having far too much fun prolonging the point of his story. It was almost as if he was waiting for something to happen. He took on a more serious note. "You were all injected with a special syringe, with genes from a certain animal. You've been undergoing a gradual but severe change to become more like that animal."_

_They were crazy. And my family had been caught in the middle. At least I hadn't dragged Fang and Iggy in- at least they had already been in. Don't get me wrong- it was most definitely not lucky that they were tangled up in this mess, but it made me feel better that it wasn't my fault they were here._

"_What animal?" after all, it was a broad classification: mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, insects, and worms._

"_You'll see."_

_I had to know. I might even be okay with it if it was some kind of mammal or bird. But reptiles, amphibians, fish, bugs and worms… I shuddered. I don't know if I could handle that._

_Dylan's watch beeped. He glanced at it, and then smiled maliciously at me. "Strap her down, boys. It's time."_

* * *

Fang POV:

Fang and the flock watched with pained eyes as the spat between Max and the Eraser took place, but there was nothing any of them could do; they were all in separate, locked cages, after all.

The two Erasers unlocked Max's cage and

Max hadn't told them where they were, but she said they were going to be experimented on. She said it was going to hurt.

But she also gave them hope. She had reminded them that they were there for each other; that they were the flock, and the flock would always prevail.

Then the wolf-men came. There were two of them, they were big, and they were ugly. Fang couldn't bring himself to say anything, though.

Not even when they unlocked Max's cage, insulted her, and flung her around.

He was a coward. And then they took her away, and there was nothing Fang could do about it. He was pulled from his thoughts by a strangled wail, followed by muffled sobs.

"Shh, Angel, it's okay," Nudge comforted her, and Gazzy reached his hand as far as it would go between the bars.

"We'll be okay. Max said so. Max is always right." He whispered.

"No, she's not. Remember the time with the bird? And the time with the toaster?" Angel sniffled.

"Well, she was wrong about a whole lot. But Max is always right about things like this." The Gasman's tone was sure, and Fang could tell that he believed that they would be all right. But now it was time to calm them down, take their minds off things.

"Max will be back," he stated quietly. "But while we're waiting, why don't you tell me and Iggy about the bird and the toaster?"

Angel sniffed, and she, Nudge, and the Gasman exchanged weak smiles. "Well, the time with the bird was kind of sad, so I don't think we should tell that one. I mean, it can wait until we're all not so depressed. But the toaster story, now _that_ was funny! And I could never forget the time with the parachute, or that crazy tattoo guy. What happened to him, anyway? But, the toaster story! Ha-ha, I am so _never_ letting Max near a toaster ever again! Angel, Gazzy, you probably only remember part of it, so I'll start, and just jump in whenever you feel like it."

They nodded.

After several stories that made even Fang smile, the atmosphere grew tense and serious again.

"I wonder where they took her," Nudge sighed. Then Iggy finally spoke.

"We'll find out."

* * *

Max POV:

The Uglies came out of nowhere and strapped my arms and legs to a table. I was on my stomach, which was the only good thing that came out of this, because my back was stiff and really starting to hurt. In a searing, white-hot pain, I felt something burst through the skin of my back. I screamed, tears running down my face at the worst pain imaginable. Blood ran everywhere, but all I felt was relief.

It was as if some pressure had been built up, and finally released. Erasers #1 and #2 (Or were these different, like maybe #3 and #4?) grabbed an arm and a leg each and started carrying me to gosh knows where. I, of course, couldn't just be taken there peacefully.

I shrieked a few profanities. "YOU CAN JUST GO DIE IN A HOLE! NOBODY LOVES YOU; YOU WERE ADOPTED AND HAVE A REDHEADED SISTE- AAAAAH!" It was all fine and dandy then, because I was finally feeling better after insulting someone. That is, until they _threw me off of the roof_.

The thirty-something-story-roof. [AKA: the only roof.]

It was oddly calming, just me and the air, my troubles left behind. I could've stayed there forever, if not for the fact that I had to go back and rescue the flock. I had a thirst for revenge against Dylan, Sam, the Erasers, basically the whole School. And, y'know, there was also the ground rushing up toward me at a deadly pace. But other than that, forever!

Why the heck would they kidnap me just to watch me die? Well, they are crazy, but why go to all that trouble for something inevitable?

The ground was getting too close for comfort. Then it struck me:

I wanted to live! I needed to fight for my life, _right now!_ But how could I? There was nothing to fight, nothing to grab but empty air.

Whatever medication they must've shot me with wore off at that moment, and the world came into almost painfully sharp focus. I could see every blade of grass below, hear the murmur of the wind in the trees in the distance, feel the sun warming my skin, my feathers-

Wait. Feathers? My assumption was that these feathers were probably attached to wings, which were most likely attached to my back. Duh.

_You have wings now, Max; use them,_ said the Voice. _You don't want to die, remember?_

Right. Note to self: investigate later. Save life now.

Usually I would have some witty, sarcastic comeback, but for once in my life, the Voice was making sense.

I unfurled my… _wings_… as hard and fast as I could. _Yee-ouch! No sudden unfurling_. They caught the air like sails, and I was jerked upward in an unpleasant almost-stop. But at least I wasn't falling any more. Now… how to go up? Or at least land? I experimentally tipped one wing down. I started to go in a gentle circle, and I aimed myself downward, just slightly.

I'd seen hawks do this before on Animal Planet, so I figured it must work. _Right, cause, TV _never_ lies, huh?_

The ground was only a few feet away, but I wasn't afraid now. Strangely enough, I didn't hate the wings like I thought I would, like I should. But it was as if I was meant to have them.

Gah. Stupid medication. Er, scratch that, it makes me sound crazy.

I was a few feet from the grass, and I decided to wing it. (Get it? _Wing_ it? Cause I have- oh, forget it.) So, I tucked my wings in, ran a few feet, and-

Did a total face-plant in the dirt.

Another note to self: work on landings.

There was a slow clapping in the background, and I peeled myself off of Mother Earth. I brushed myself off. "Who are you?" I asked the figure, which was standing in a strange, convenient shadow that obscured their face. "What do you want?"

"I'm hurt. You should know your own father, Maximum."

"My father died a long time ago. He was a good man. He'd never come near the likes of you."

"Oh, but Maximum," the figure said in a silky voice, stepping out into the sunlight, "things aren't always as they appear." I stopped in shock.

And Jeb Batchelder pulled out a syringe, sticking it into my frozen arm.

* * *

Fang POV:

How long had it been? Fang wondered idly. He didn't know. Time passed slowly, each ticking second feeling like hours. He was worried sick for Max. Fang knew that she could take care of herself, but that didn't stop him from caring.

Ugh. All of this love was taking a serious toll on his manliness.

Hold on. Love?

Before Fang had time to contemplate on whether he loved Max, he heard cussing outside of the door. It was Max. Her voice grew louder and passed by the door.

_Well, that was definitely Max._ Fang thought dryly._ No one else could cuss like that._

Then there was silence again, and Fang was left to his thoughts.

Then all of a sudden, Nudge gasped. "Look!" Fang got a glimpse of brown-and-blonde streaked hair as it rushed past the window. He could feel the blood leave his face, and panic overtook him.

"They threw her off the roof!" the Gasman wailed. Iggy's sightless eyes widened in shock.

"They did something to her! They wouldn't kidnap us just to kill us one by one! That means they're going to do something to us, too!" Angel had tears streaking down her face. "But Max… Max is okay! She has to be okay!"

"Oh, we're not going to make it! I mean, face it! No one, not even Max, could survive that fall. I overheard the Erasers talking. This building is over thirty stories high!" Iggy exploded. "Max was our only hope, and now she's gone. There's nothing we can do about it; we're going to die here!"

"Iggy!" Nudge exclaimed, shocked tears spilling over. "Max isn't dead! And we aren't going to die!"

"Oh, yeah? Look at us! A blind pyro, a little boy with digestion problems, a little girl barely more than a toddler, an emo freak, and a shopaholic motormouth, and a dead leader. What hope do we have?"

Angel and Gazzy started to cry along with Nudge, and they all flinched at the words 'dead leader'. But Fang barely heard Iggy. He was gazing out the window, still with amazement, but not showing it through his carefully composed mask as always.

He had seen feathers. Brown and white feathers with black splashed here and there. But that wasn't all. They were far, far too large to be a bird's, with a wingspan of at least eighteen feet. That still wasn't it. They had been attached to a human- one who obviously wasn't all human any more.

It had been Max. Max had wings, he was sure of it. He didn't know how, or why, or even if she had had them before they came here. All he knew was that she was alive. "She's alive," he voiced his thoughts. "Max is alive." He snapped out of his stupor.

"We need to get out of here when Max comes back. They'll probably come for us, too. They'll probably do the same thing to us as they did to her." He said. "Iggy. You may be a blind pyro, but you know how to pick locks. Do you have your kit?"

Iggy was looking cautiously more hopeful. "Yeah… but Max couldn't have survived."

"Good." Fang ignored Iggy's insistence that Max was dead. He had seen with his own eyes that she wasn't. "Can you pick the locks on the cages?"

He felt the metal of his enclosure. "Ha! Easy. You'd think that with all of these billion-dollar experiments they could afford something better than a cheap padlock."

"Excellent. But not yet. Timing is everything. Meanwhile, we'd better keep a close watch. When Max comes back, we're getting out."

Satisfied, Fang sank down to the floor of the tiny, metal box. He had a plan. They were going to get out.

His plans were momentarily forgotten when the door banged open, an unconscious Max thrown into her empty cage. He was expecting to see what he did, so it did not surprise him.

The rest of the flock, however, couldn't say the same. Gasps came from Max's biological siblings, and her best friend let out a strangled cry.

"What?" asked Iggy impatiently. "Is she alive?"

"Yes," Fang answered, "yes she is."

"Well, what did they do to her, then?"

"They gave her wings, Iggy." He sighed. "They gave her the wings of a bird."

For once Iggy was speechless.

* * *

**Whoa-ho! I thought I did well on that one. I have found that I always use these little line things ^. Anyway, GTG, and see you at my NU. (The 23****rd**** or so.) Till next time.**

**Lizzie out.**


	13. Everyone's Being Thrown Off the Roof

**FINALLY! THE INTERNET IS FIXED!**

**It was broken, in case you hadn't caught that. And I couldn't exactly take my computer with me when I visited my family and use their internet, seeing how this isn't a laptop.**

**Oh, well. Made you two chapters to make up for it.**

**Always cliffies. Sigh. But this one isn't _that_ bad.  
**

**I really think I don't know how to write anything else.**

**Anyway, thanks all who reviewed. You deserve this chapter. The rest of you do, too really. I'm just a little review-obsessed.**

* * *

Recap:

_Max POV:_

_The ground was only a few feet away, but I wasn't afraid now. Strangely enough, I didn't hate the wings like I thought I would, like I should. But it was as if I was meant to have them._

_Gah. Stupid medication. Er, scratch that, it makes me sound crazy._

_I was a few feet from the grass, and I decided to wing it. (Get it? _Wing_ it? Cause I have- oh, forget it.) So, I tucked my wings in, ran a few feet, and-_

_Did a total face-plant in the dirt._

_Another note to self: work on landings._

_There was a slow clapping in the background, and I peeled myself off of Mother Earth. I brushed myself off. "Who are you?" I asked the figure, which was standing in a strange, convenient shadow that obscured their face. "What do you want?"_

"_I'm hurt. You should know your own father, Maximum."_

"_My father died a long time ago. He was a good man. He'd never come near the likes of you."_

"_Oh, but Maximum," the figure said in a silky voice, stepping out into the sunlight, "things aren't always as they appear." I stopped in shock._

_And Jeb Batchelder pulled out a syringe, sticking it into my frozen arm._

* * *

_Fang POV:_

_His plans were momentarily forgotten when the door banged open, an unconscious Max thrown into her empty cage. He was expecting to see what he did, so it did not surprise him._

_The rest of the flock, however, couldn't say the same. Gasps came from Max's biological siblings, and her best friend let out a strangled cry._

"_What?" asked Iggy impatiently. "Is she alive?"_

"_Yes," Fang answered, "yes she is."_

"_Well, what did they do to her, then?"_

"_They gave her wings, Iggy." He sighed. "They gave her the wings of a bird."_

_For once Iggy was speechless._

* * *

Max POV:

When I woke up, I was back in the cage.

Crap.

I also found the flock staring at me, undoubtedly curious and/or scared.

Double crap.

"So," I started, "what'd I miss?"

"Oh, nothing much," said Iggy. "We just told stories, lost hope, made an escape plan, got that hope back, and… oh, _yeah!_ They saw you _falling_ outside of a window just a _few hundred feet_ off the ground, and then I was told you have _wings_, and that's how you survived. Care to explain?"

"Well," I said, laughing nervously, and also a bit hysterically, "it's nice to see you, too."

I could tell that Angel couldn't take it any more. "I'm just so glad you're okay," she sobbed. "We wouldn't make it without you. Not even Fang or Iggy or Nudge. We need you. Without you we're not the flock."

Nudge had her own crocodile tears forming. "Yeah," she sniffed, "I mean, what would I do if you weren't here? I wouldn't have anyone to smack me upside the head when I did something dumb, or to beat up the cute guys that flirted with me? I mean, sure it was annoying, but I could tell you really cared. And I couldn't take care of Gazzy or Angel like you do. I'd be a mess!"

"We all missed you, Max," Fang said. "A whole lot."

Gazzy nodded in agreement, too choked up to speak.

"Max," Iggy's face was contorted in pain, and his words were short and choppy. "I'm… sorry. I just- it's just so hard! Ever since the car accident, I've been bitter. Yeah, I make jokes, and yeah, it doesn't seem like it, but I'm blind! You all don't know what it's like. I'm always the last to find something out, the last to know, always the one who's pitied the most. I have to be told what's going on most of the time.

"But you- you and your family, Max, you helped. You loved me unconditionally, like a family should, and you didn't constantly look at me in pity. I can tell. But, Max, you helped the most. You- you were the mother I never had even though I'm a grown man. The mother that shunned me since I was eight years old because of a car accident that took my sight- a car accident that was _her_ fault- she's not my mother. You are. And you helped make me strong, in so little time."

I've got to say, my throat was tight. "Oh, Iggy! I'm so sorry. And… I'm also really, truly touched. I'm glad that I could be so important to you, and I'll tell you that you're just as important to me. We're all family here- maybe not by blood, but by spirit and by love. And I'm gonna stop here, cause this is getting really cheesy. But it's all true."

Then the Erasers burst in, _yet again,_ ruining this Hallmark moment, and putting fear into our hearts the moment they smiled at Angel like they did. I could almost hear their thoughts. _She was next._

"_NO!_" I screamed, slamming against the bars of my cage. "_Angel!_" I clawed at the metal, but unfortunately my wings hadn't given me the ability to bend steel.

It hit me then: they did this to all of us, and Fang, Iggy, the Gasman, and Nudge were going to be taken one by one. They were all going to experience the same pain that I had. They were going to be strapped to a table. They were going to be thrown off of a roof.

_They were going to get wings._

I sat down hard on this realization, and my mind scrambled to come up with another option, any other option. I couldn't. It was the only logical explanation, not that logic meant anything to these creeps. They enjoyed playing god, messing with the natural order of things just because they could.

_Angel, my baby._

Gazzy once again had tears running down his cheeks, and he looked almost as frantic as I felt. The sibling he felt closest to- gone. Taken away by those monsters, and probably in a lot of pain.

_Gazzy, my little trooper._

Nudge made a strangled sound, then curled up in a ball and didn't move.

_Nudge, my optimistic motormouth._

Iggy stared coldly at the black abyss that only he could see, but I knew he would stare at the world in hate if he could.

_Iggy, my strong-willed pyromaniac._

"Max? Are you okay?" Fang's eyes showed more concern than he could express through words.

_Fang, my… my…_ love. _I loved Fang. I was in love with him. And now he was going to be hurt. They all were._

"NO!" I roared aloud. A small voice in the back of my head- not _the_ Voice, though- said, _Gosh, we sure are cheesy and dramatic when we're in mortal danger. Wait, does referring to ourself as 'we' mean we've cracked? Is 'ourself' even a word?_

I pushed the thoughts away. Now was _not_ the time to panic, or the time to think over things like that. My gaze hardened and I could have burned a hole in each flock member as I stared at them so intensely. "Listen. We have to get out. We're all getting wings- that's inevitable. You're all going to be thrown off of the roof, and you have to figure out how to fly before you go ker-splat. The flying's easy, actually. Landing is what you have to practice." I chuckled.

"Oh, yeah? What about me? How am I supposed to land?" Iggy's tone was more sad than bitter.

"You'll figure it out," I said. "After all, if you can build a bomb without seeing, then you can definitely land that way, too. And I hear that we get powers along with these wings." I grew more serious. "We _all_ will make it. And we _all_ will escape, limbs _intact_. This is scary. This is real. This is our life now, and there's nothing we can do but survive."

I had successfully distracted them from Angel's plummet down the side of the building. Unfortunately, I saw it; but I also saw the tips of white feathers and I knew that she would be okay. I turned back to my flock. "Everything's going to be fine. You just have to trust me."

We sat in silence for half a second before the Erasers dragged a kicking and screeching Angel back into the room and into her cage, then left. When the heavy, metal door swung shut, Angel immediately quieted and blinked at us with those huge, blue eyes.

"Hey, guys. What'd I miss? By the way, I can read minds."

I balked. What? Who? When? Where? Why? How? What?

"You thought 'What?' twice."

I gaped. And gaped. "A-Angel," I finally choked out, "would you please not do that?"

"Okay," she agreed cheerfully. We were all still speechless, our eyes bugging out of our heads. How could she take this so calmly? But then, she was six; life was still just an adventure for her.

_Hey, Max? Can I do this?_

I nearly had a heart attack. She was a freaking _telepath? Um, ignore that last thought, Angel. And don't cuss._

_Okay. But you didn't answer my question._

_Yes, Angel, you can think to us. But only when you really have to. People enjoy having their thoughts stay private. And do me a favor?_

_What's that? She _probably already knew, but was waiting for me to tell her.

_Don't EVER visit Iggy's mind. Now please get out of my head, sweetie._

She was a little confused at my last request, but she obediently left my head. Mental sigh of relief.

"Okay," I squeaked out, and then made my voice more leader-y. "Okay. As we've just found out, Angel is in fact a telepath. I don't know what the rest of you will be able to do, but I am seriously hesitant to find out. Anyway, there's nothing we can do about it. Whoever is next, stay strong."

They nodded solemnly. Then Angel stiffened. "Someone's coming," she whispered. "The Erasers. They're thinking mean thoughts. They- they want to rip us up. And they say that they have to come get the loud, brown one next. I think they mean Nudge." She was quivering.

Nudge herself was petrified. "No, no! They can't do this! I'm too young to be thrown off of a building!" I'm sure she would've said more- a lot more- but at that moment the big uglies burst into the room.

"That one." #1 growled, pointing a hairy finger toward Nudge. #2 tugged her out of her cage.

"No! No! I'm too pretty to dieee!" her nails made a piercing wail as they tried to find purchase on the floor. "NOOO!" she was cut off when the door banged closed.

"Wow, dramatic much?" Iggy tried to lighten our mood, but not even he was smiling.

"That's Nudge for you," I said weakly, "stubborn as a mule, and louder than a dinosaur."

"Louder than a _dinosaur_? Where did that come from?" Fang snorted, a subtle worry lacing his tone.

"Yeah, that's me, Miss Spontaneous."

"A big word for such a small-minded person."

"Iggy!"

"What? Just making conversation."

I growled inaudibly. "Well, at least I have a brain."

"Guys' brains are bigger than girls'. It's a fact. Get over it. Ours weigh like four pounds, and yours weigh three."

"That's a lot of dead weight you must be carrying around up there, then, huh?"

"What?"

"My point exactly."

"Guys? They're bringing Nudge back. And I think she gave them a headache." Angel interrupted us.

The door banged open, and they threw Nudge back into her cage. Without pausing, they grabbed the Gasman and lugged him out. There were tears in his eyes.

"Be strong, Gazzy," I said, "and we'll see you when you're an Avian American."

* * *

**There you have it. NU- right now, seeing as I'm apologizing for my lateness on whenever I was late.**

**Enjoy! Review?**

**-Lizzie**


	14. The Sight

**! I'MSOEXCITED! FANGIRLSQUEEEEEE!**

**Hehe. Sorry, I'm a little excited. Just a little.**

**I just wanted to let you know that I have absolutely no idea where I'm going with this story. I'm making it up as I go along.**

**Just to let you know.**

* * *

Recap (I know, I know, unneeded, but it's like a tradition now.):

"_Guys? They're bringing Nudge back. And I think she gave them a headache." Angel interrupted us._

_The door banged open, and they threw Nudge back into her cage. Without pausing, they grabbed the Gasman and lugged him out. There were tears in his eyes._

"_Be strong, Gazzy," I said, "and we'll see you when you're an Avian American."_

* * *

I was getting a serious cramp from sitting here so long. "I have a cramp," I announced.

"Where?" Nudge asked.

"_Everywhere."_

"Well, what am I supposed to do about it?"

"Nothing. Just thought I'd let you know."

She snorted. "I think we all have cramps."

I shook my head. "Yours aren't as bad. You got to stretch your wings not too long ago. And you probably stretched everything else, too."

Fang looked at me worriedly. "Is she okay? Not that I mind this mild, calm Max, but she looks a little… out of it."

"She's just shut down, kind of. It's a Max thing. She knows she can't do anything to help us anymore, and she's really stressed out, so her brain kinda turned off. Plus there's the whole no food or water in a while, exhaustion, and claustrophobia. Max will be a bit loopy right now. But she'll be back to normal when Gazzy comes back. I've only seen her like this twice…"

Blah, blah, blah. Nudge was so silly. How could I be awake if my brain was turned off?

Whoa. Hold the horses. The ones in the expression, because there aren't any horses in here. I don't think. Whoa. A speck of dust just floated right in front of me. I tried to touch it, but it floated away. No! Come back, dust! I come in peace!

Oh my gosh, I'm in a cage. Why didn't someone tell me? This puts a fly in the ointment. Who came up with that saying anyway? It's dumb. Why would the fly need ointment? I mean, can they get rashes? Maybe…

Wait a minute! How do 'Do not walk on grass.' signs get there anyway? And why doesn't the hair on your arms get split ends? And if you can test drive cars at the dealer's, why can't you test drive lawn mowers at the hardware store? If anything is possible, is it possible that nothing's possible? Do I really need to keep searching 'funny random questions' on Google?

_SLAM!_

They dragged Gazzy back in and tossed him in his cage. I shook my head hard, like a wet dog. #1 stalked toward Fang's cage, grinning. "Your turn now, birdie." Fang showed no expression as usual, and the Erasers weren't happy. They kicked his cage, trying to get a rise from him. But Fang would not do anything but sit and glare.

Finally, they yanked him out of his cage, growling in unison. "Come on. It looks like this one's broken," #2 joked. They laughed harshly, and then they took Fang with them.

It wasn't any easier watching them take Fang away than it had been watching them take Angel. The only comfort I had was that I knew that Fang could defend himself pretty well. But even that couldn't soothe my 'mother hen' instincts. I took deep breaths, trying to calm myself, knowing that Fang of all people would survive.

"Okay, flock. Fang will be back soon, and then they'll take Iggy. But when Iggy comes back, we bust outta here. We'll fly straight for home, and when we get there we'll make some arrangements. Then we disappear, and they'll never find us. I know that this is wishful thinking and that it's way too optimistic for my taste, but something tells me that money can accomplish basically anything in the physical world. And money is something we have an abundance of."

"Where do you think Fang is now?" Nudge asked.

"Probably strapped to that table or something," Gazzy shuddered.

A flash of black caught my eye from the tiny window, and I saw dark feathers as well. "Well, I think he's currently falling down the side of the building, unless he successfully learned to flap." Figures. Only Fang, the king of dark colors, would get genetically altered and end up with _black_ wings, out of all the colors he could've gotten. Am I the only one who sees the irony of this?

Sigh. If only he'd gotten rainbow wings. I could've teased him about it the rest of our lives. That would've been so painful for him, and yet so fun for me. (And undoubtedly the rest of the flock, too.)

"Did you see him?" Angel inquired.

"I saw black feathers out that window- who else could it be?"

Iggy snorted. "You mean the King of Goth actually ended up with Goth wings? This is rich."

"So is he still a vampire, or is he, like, a fallen angel or something?" I didn't know Nudge could go so long without breaking into a full-out lecture. This was undeniably the record for when she was conscious.

"Naw, he's still a vampire. Now he's just a vampire with wings." We lapsed into silence.

A while later- it could have been seconds or hours, I gave up trying to keep track a long time ago- they shoved Fang back into his cage.

"Yo."

"You know, I honestly can't think of a reply to that." But I was beyond glad that he was back. Unfortunately that relief was warring with the dread that Iggy was being taken next. The door slammed open hopefully for the last time to take one of my flock.

"See you later, Iggy."

"You can do it."

"See you on the other side."

"Don't listen to anything they say. They're gonna try their hardest to get you to fight, then they're gonna beat the snot outta you."

Iggy gave us a faint, worried smile as he was forced out of the door. They started taunting him.

"What's a matter, can't see what's right in front of you?" one growled.

The other laughed cruelly. "My bad; this is the one that's broken, not that one."

"Maybe they all have something wrong with them. That one can't talk, that one can't shut up," he gestured to Fang, then Nudge. "That one smells rank, that one doesn't have any sense of self-preservation," the Gasman, then me. "And that one is just disturbing," he jerked his chin to Angel. She smiled sweetly at him.

"Maybe if you weren't so dumb, then you could see that we're all better people than you! You hurt people just for fun, and _like_ it when they're in pain! That is wrong! You- you- you're just a bunch of meanies that can go to H-E- double toothpicks!" Angel exploded. She huffed and crossed her arms, turning her back on them.

They weren't affected by my brave, six-year-old sister's words. They ignored her, and dragged Iggy to torture. I winced at the slam of metal against metal, and we sat in silence for a while.

"Iggy will be okay, won't he?" the Gasman asked timidly. "I mean, he's always okay. We all are, because we have you to take care of us. But what if they don't like him because his eyes are bad? What if they…" he gulped. "Throw him out or something?"

"That won't happen, Gazzy. They're too caught up in playing god to care about something as trivial as sight. After all, what's all this compared to 'the bigger picture'?" I spat out the last part.

We again lapsed into silence. Seconds felt like hours, hours like days, until I started to wonder. Where was Iggy? I was 72% sure that we had all been tossed off the roof by now. That 72% was slowly going up as the day went by, and my systems were on red alert when Iggy hadn't returned by nightfall.

"Max, where is he?" Nudge whispered.

"He's dead! They've killed him!" the Gasman wailed pitifully. "My best friend!"

"I don't know where he is, but he's not dead," I said forcefully. "He will come back, and when he comes back he'll have wings, like the rest of us." I made my voice gentler. "Now, Gazzy, Angel, why don't you get some sleep? We'll wake you up when Iggy is back, promise."

"But-"

"No buts. Sleep. Now."

"Yes, Max," they chorused. "Good night."

"Good night. I _will_ wake you when Iggy comes."

But Iggy didn't come. And it wasn't until late that next day until we saw him fall down by the window, and later still until he came back.

But boy, were we in for a shock when he did come back.

It started out much the same. Door slammed open, new bird-kid pushed along. Iggy's head hung low, his hair covering his face. I didn't think much of it. He didn't have anything to say, not until the Erasers left, banging the door again. He turned his bloodshot eyes upon us.

"Hey, guys," he said, a goofy smile on his face. Angel gasped. "Guess what?"

"What?" the Gasman said, eager to please his friend. He had been losing hope when Iggy hadn't come back in the morning.

"I can see." His eyes sparkled with emotion, and something else- _clarity_, I realized.

Holy snap.

* * *

**Whoa! Well, there you have it, from the mind of yours truly. Sorry it's so short, Mom's nagging me to go to bed- big test in the morning. NU- 4/30/2011, or around there. Review?**

**-Lizzie**


	15. The Escape Plan

**Yes, I know I skipped an update, but gimme a break, these last few weeks of school have been BRUTAL.**

**On Monday I had school, of course, and then I had girl scouts. On Tuesday I had school, and then I had rehearsal for a mini-recital at school on Thursday morning. Wednesday I had school and CCD (some church thing) after that. Then Thursday morning I had to perform in front of the 8****th**** graders, then in front of my classmates. We – the school, that is – went to the park for the day. Then I had to perform again after school for the parents. (Keep in mind that this was for school dance (which I take for my PE credit), not dance dance.) On Friday I had school and after a Luau themed school dance (like, boy-girl dancing, not performing). So, I was exhausted, and-**

**PLEASE DON'T RIP OUT MY SPLEEN WITH SPORKS!**

**To make up for it and some more bad news (at the bottom) I have written…**

_**Three**_** chapters.**

**:O**

**Gasp.**

* * *

Recap:

"_Good night. I _will_ wake you when Iggy comes."_

_But Iggy didn't come. And it wasn't until late that next day until we saw him fall down by the window, and later still until he came back._

_But boy, were we in for a shock when he did come back._

_It started out much the same. Door slammed open, new bird-kid pushed along. Iggy's head hung low, his hair covering his face. I didn't think much of it. He didn't have anything to say, not until the Erasers left, banging the door again. He turned his bloodshot eyes upon us._

"_Hey, guys," he said, a goofy smile on his face. Angel gasped. "Guess what?"_

"_What?" the Gasman said, eager to please his friend. He had been losing hope when Iggy hadn't come back in the morning._

"_I can see." His eyes sparkled with emotion, and something else- clarity, I realized._

_Holy snap._

* * *

"And I have wings. But that last one wasn't as cool as it normally would be, since you all have wings, too."

"Iggy!"

"Oh, my gosh!"

"ZOMG!"

"That is like… that's like, impossible! And awesome! Impossibly awesome!"

And Fang… well, Fang gave a full-blown Fang smile, and the whole world got just a little brighter.

I guess I should describe our wings better, huh?

Angel's wings were pure white, a snow petrel, without a splash of any other color, adding to her angelic appearance.

Contrastingly, Fang's wings were so black that I'd be willing to bet that they looked almost purple in the sunlight; I could hardly believe that Fang's wings were black, like a raven or a crow. I still kind of wished that they had been rainbow.

Gazzy's wings were like some kind of barn owl.

Iggy's were black and white like an albatross.

Nudge's were like a hawk's, tawny in color.

My wings… _They're a lighter brown than my hair, but not as tawny as Nudge's. My primary feathers, the big ones along the bottom outside edges, are streaked with black and white. The secondaries are streaked white and brown. On the undersides of my wings, the covert feathers are a soft ivory color. And over the tops and down the backs of my wings, I have shiny, strong brown feathers fading perfectly into primaries._** (Description from **_**The Final Warning**_**.)**

And now for our escape plan.

What's that, you ask?

Well, you're gonna find out. Stick with me here.

* * *

"All right," I said, clapping my hands and turning into Military Leader Max (as opposed to just regular Leader Max). I still, of course, remembered to keep hushed tones and watch for the slightest movement in the door handle. "Do you all **(See? I CAN resist the urge to say y'all!)** have any powers that may have suddenly developed, like Angel's telepathy?"

"I have the ability to fry people's brains with my endless ranting!" Nudge said. We all looked at her funny - Iggy's look was a little love struck; I sensed something between those two ahead – when she said that. I was fairly sure she hadn't even opened her mouth. "What? I didn't even open my mouth- you all saw me! ZOMG! Is there a ghost in here? I would, like, totally freak out if there was! But I swear I didn't say that!"

Gazzy was snickering the whole time. Then Angel started laughing with him.

"All right, what's going on, guys?" I said in my no-nonsense tone. Angel eventually choked an answer out.

"G-Gazzy can mimic sounds! People sounds, machine sounds, animal sounds. All of them!"

Perfect. Just perfect. BUT for our escape, it could help. I could tell that he would wield this dark gift happily.

"I can taste colors!" Iggy bellowed. I didn't know how to reply to that, except for with one question:

"And how, exactly, do you know this? Wait- I don't want to know. Just forget I asked."

"Really?" the Gasman exclaimed excitedly.

"Yup." You could tell that Iggy was very proud of his newfound power, ridiculous as it was.

"Okay. Okay. Nudge?"

"Well, I can feel, like vibration thingies- I can't really explain. And I'm magnetic. Watch!" She stuck her hand to a bar of her cage, and then couldn't get it off. "Maybe that wasn't the best idea," she mumbled.

"Moving on." I turned to Fang… only to find that Fang was not there. Crap. "Fang? Fa-ang! FANG!"

"What?" An annoyed voice came out of nowhere.

"Does everyone else hear that?" Nudge asked. We nodded. "Good, so I'm not crazy. I mean, it would stink to be crazy- they would put you in a straight jacket, and do you know how hard it would be to find shoes to go with that? Not to mention that you couldn't do your hair or makeup! ZOMG-"

"What are you guys talking about?" the voice (not the one in my head) interrupted, agitated.

Iggy decided to be… Iggy. "Show yourself, apparition! We mean you no harm. We shalt not laugh hysterically at your hideous appearance. Be kind to us, spirit! We are but humble living." He sat on his feet and touched his forehead to the ground.

"What the crap?" The 'spirit' sounded an awful lot like Fang… then it all became clear.

"Fang, you're invisible."

"What? Oh." He reappeared, looking down at his arm, which he must've moved. "Only when I'm still."

"Well… this has been just delightful, but we really should make an escape plan now." I announced.

"Max, do you have any powers?" Angel asked.

"Not that I know of, sweetie. But we really need to make a plan."

"Oh, okay."

Well, now that that… _interesting_… fiasco was over…

"Angel. Tell us when we'll have at least an hour of peace- meaning no Erasers or whitecoats bother us in that whole time frame. Then Iggy will pick the locks on our cages. That wouldn't be too hard for you, would it?" He shook his head. "Excellent. I'll tell you the rest of the plan later, when we have some peace."

"Now, let's get those purple elephants!" Fang screamed excitedly.

"Gazzy…"

"What? I was just… preparing myself. Practicing."

Sigh. This would be a very, very long wait.

…

…

…

"My hand is still stuck, if anyone's interested."

…

…

…

"They're locking up for the night." Angel chirped.

Scratch that. It wasn't too bad of a wait. Plan: WHAGOBOH, AKA: Plan: Wreak Havoc And Get Our Butts Outta Here, has now begun. I love my ability to make up cool plan names.

* * *

**Okay, so the other bad news is that I won't be able to update as regularly as I would like to. I get out of school on the 27****th****, so after that I'll be able to get back into it. Sorry for going MIA for so long- I'll try to give advanced warning before I do it again.**

**Working on the next chapter right now. Sorry for this one's length, I'm having a slight case of writer's block.  
**

**-Lizzie**


	16. Purple Elephants!

**Please review. If no review, shame on you. Cool, that rhymed!**

**Oh, by the way, the A/N on top of Chapter 14 said, "OH MY GOSH PROM THE MOVIE IS COMING OUT THIS FRIDAY! I'M SO EXCITED! FANGIRL SQUEALLLL!" but without all of the spaces. Just thought I'd put that, since y'all probably didn't know why I was so excited. BTW, I saw Prom that Friday. LOVED it!**

* * *

Recap: (Routine, you know.)

_"Angel. Tell us when we'll have at least an hour of peace- meaning no Erasers or whitecoats bother us in that whole time frame. Then Iggy will pick the locks on our cages. That wouldn't be too hard for you, would it?" He shook his head. "Excellent. I'll tell you the rest of the plan later, when we have some peace."_

_"Now, let's get those purple elephants!" Fang screamed excitedly._

_"Gazzy…"_

_"What? I was just… preparing myself. Practicing."_

_Sigh. This would be a very, very long wait._

…

…

…

_"My hand is still stuck, if anyone's interested."_

…

…

…

_"They're locking up for the night." Angel chirped._

_Scratch that. It wasn't too bad of a wait. Plan: WHAGOBOH, AKA: Plan: Wreak Havoc And Get Our Butts Outta Here, has now begun. I love my ability to make up cool plan names._

* * *

Iggy immediately pulled out his lock picking kit and set to work. In a few minutes, he was free. "I almost had to close my eyes. Who knew that seeing made things so much more complicated?"

"You just have to get used to seeing again," Fang said.

"Again?" Angel asked.

"Yeah, see, there was a time when I could see. When I lost my sight, well, let's just say it involved a small, black Scottie, a tube of toothpaste, and a bomb. But there's no time for that story now."

He got to work and in 15 minutes we were all free. (Nudge got her hand un-stuck) I looked around for something, anything to start pandemonium. Then I spotted it. Those whitecoats were _idiots._ There was a small, red lever next to a fire alarm. Printed below the lever in big, bold type were the words "IN CASE OF EMERGENCY: PULL FOR ALL EXPERIMENTS' RELEASE". I, being me, decided to find out what good it could do with padlocks, and not electronic keypads or something along those lines. A key was hidden behind the handle. I picked it up.

"So much for emergency release. This'll take _forever_ to open all of these cages!" I exclaimed. Then - get this – a random, flashing button popped out of the wall. Again being me, I pushed it. Suddenly all of the cage doors popped open – by the opposite side of the padlock. Yup, the hinges just popped right off!

Well, my button pushing sure did cause pandemonium. The creatures rushed out of their cages, each making whatever sounds it could as loud as it could. Fang kicked the heavy, metal door down, which was seriously hot. No, head in the game, Max. No time to be thinking about your boyfriend's hotness.

The flock and I rushed into the hall, and ran in any direction, looking for a window big enough to fit through.

Guess what! You know that button I pushed? The red, flashing one? Well, it turns out that when it said 'ALL EXPERIMENTS' RELEASE' it meant _all_ experiments. As in, all experiments in the building, which was a lot. They were climbing the walls, knocking doors, wall, and windows down, trampling everything-

Wait. Windows! "Flock! Window ahead! Up and away!" We were actually going to do it! We were going to escape, and then we would destroy the School, courtesy of Iggy and the Gasman. The flock and I ran to the window and jumped out one by one. I was the last to go, and we rose unsteadily, instinctively making a 'V' formation. I was at the front, then Iggy and Fang, then Nudge, Gazzy, and Angel.

"Let's get out of here, flock." Mission: WHAGOBOH now complete.

"FIRE IN THE HOLE!" Iggy yelled.

Crap! Up! Quickly, fly quickly!

_**BOOM!**_

A mushroom cloud of fire blasted us upward several hundred feet.

"I take it you somehow found a way to make a huge bomb while we were there?"

"Haha, yup."

"Nice." We flew on in silence.

I felt my wings pumping, the sun on my back, the wind through my hair and feathers, and I thought that I could stay up here forever. Just fly away from the world, from my problems, and escape. It was so very peaceful up here-

"Max, I'm hungry." Nudge whined.

"Me too." Angel.

"Me three." The Gasman.

"Me SEVEN!"

"You mean, 'Me four', Iggy?"

"NO, I mean 'Me SEVEN!' because I'm six to four times hungrier than you all!"

"No way, we're way hungrier than you."

"Nuh-uh; not even if you put yourselves together. I'm still one times as hungry as you all."

"Iggy," I sighed. "If you were six to four _times_ as hungry as them then you would be 18 to 12. If you were one time as hungry as them, then you would be six, because one times six is six. You're subtracting instead of multiplying, and it's making you look like more of an idiot that you already are. Even Angel can do things like that, and she's in Kindergarten. True, she's very advanced, but seriously. I could do stuff like that in the second grade."

Iggy pouted. "I am not an idiot." That's all he got out of that? I can't believe- actually, I can believe. I can't act surprised at that.

"Are too." The Gasman had to start it again.

"Am not."

"Are too."

"Am not."

"Are too."

"Am not."

"Are too."

"Am not."

"Are too."

"Am not."

"Am not."

"Are too- oh, _crap!_" Iggy screeched.

"HA! I got you! You said that you're an idiot! HAHAHA!" the Gasman cackled.

"Did not."

"Did too."

"Did not."

"Did too-"

"Okay, STOP IT! You two are giving me a HEADACHE the size of AUSTRALIA!"

"Sorry, Max," they said in unison.

"_Thank_ you." If they started up again, I was going to beat their butts-

"Did not."

My left eye twitched. "_Iggy._ Shut. Up." He coughed. I knew the Gasman would be making faces at him now, or possibly sticking his tongue out, but I really didn't care.

"Max?"

"Yes, Angel?"

"I'm still hungry."

"Me too."

"Me-"

"_Stop_ right there." I saw Fang snickering in the corner of my eye. He had his hand over his mouth, trying to hide his wide grin from me, but to no avail. I sent a withering look in his direction. "We'll go to McDonald's or something. I have my Max Ride card- yes, Angel, the one with the big bank account."

She always asked that. I had always told her about our bank accounts- I called the spending one the 'big account' because we could spend big amounts of money from that one. I called the saving accounts the 'small accounts' because obviously we couldn't – shouldn't, really; we _could_ (technically) buy just about anything – spend much from that one.

"Okay, where do you want to eat?" I addressed the question to the whole flock; no one in particular. It was a bad idea. I should've just chosen the first place I'd seen, instead of almost _begging_ the flock to get into _another_ heated debate.

"CiCi's Pizza!"

"Chick-fil-A!"

"Subway!"

"Burger King!"

"Sonic!"

Did you count all of the fast food places? Did you count five? Yeah, that's right, Fang decided to add to the craziness. An idea hit me.

"I have a game!" I announced, interrupting their argument. "Whoever spots their restaurant first wins! That means that we eat there!

A few seconds of silence, thank the Lord! I can only hope it will last, but I probably just jinxed it by thinking that.

…

"CiCi's Pizza! Right there!" I groaned. Yup, I jinxed it.

"Okay, Nudge, you win. We're eating at CiCi's, flock!" There were one or two cheers, a couple groans of protest. I just tilted my wings and began to descend. The flock followed. We landed behind the building and tucked in our wings tight, fixing our torn shirts so that you couldn't see them. "We go in, we order food, we get out, comprende? We can eat somewhere… less crowded," I said, looking around at the near-deserted parking lot. "There aren't many people here, but I get the feeling we're being watched."

I did a quick 360. "Now, see anyone suspicious, say 'I think we know them.' and we'll do a quick U&A, get out of there fast. Now, what do you want?" I was bombarded with different pizza toppings. "You know what? Let's just order them when we get inside."

We walked in, a heightened sense of wariness and a new fear: claustrophobia. The flock and I walked up to the register.

"Hi," Nudge started, "I want one large veggie lover's pizza. To go. I mean, I would eat it here, but-"

"Okay, Nudge." I placed a hand over her mouth. "Go ahead and order, the rest of you."

Several dollars poorer, we walked out of CiCi's, pizzas in hand. The register guy looked hopelessly confused at all of the food we got, but I honestly couldn't care less. We scurried into an alley and took off, intent on finding a small forest or something along those lines to eat our pizza in. We found this lovely little meadow near a small town called Forks and met Edward Cullen.

That was sarcasm, people.

Instead we flew for hours trying to find a place that wasn't heavily populated. It didn't help that I had no idea where we were. The worst part? Our pizza was cold!

Iggy spotted a splotch of green up ahead. "Look! We can eat food there!" We all cheered and flew faster, totally focused on food and rest. It was a small forest, but it was shelter, and it was hidden. It was getting dark; we needed to make a camp.

"We'll eat and then rest here for the night."

"Won't it be cold?" Gazzy asked.

"We can all sleep in a heap, like we do when the heater's out in wintertime at home."

"O-o-okay," he yawned. "That's always fun. Even when Nudge snores."

"I don't snore!"

"Yeah, you do."

"I REGRET NOTHING!"

"You know what? I think we're all just tired. Let's go to bed knowing we're safe for the time being. That we destroyed the enemy - for now, at least." I interrupted them.

"Okay," they chimed. Then all together, in words and in body, they said, "Goodnight, Max."

"Goodnight, Fang, Iggy, Nudge, Gazzy, Angel." We stacked our fists and they curled up together. I settled in a tree branch where I could watch over them. "I'll take first watch."

* * *

**I'm thinking of making a separate story with how Iggy lost his sight in (well, before) BMPB? and the stories that you didn't get to hear Nudge, Gazzy, and Angel tell. (AKA: the time with the bird, the toaster story, the time with the parachute, and that crazy tattoo guy.) Let me know if you want me to. And review! (Hehe, another rhyme!)**

**-Lizzie**


	17. The Enemy's Eyes

**I'm gonna ask again, 'cause I'm just like that.**

**All who want me to make a separate story with how Iggy lost his sight (chapter 16), the bird, the toaster, the parachute, and the crazy tattoo guy (chapter 12) say "I". Actually, don't say "I", just review that you want me to. (Oh, my gosh. ANOTHER rhyme!)**

**I feel special right now! I'd feel more special if you reviewed. And before y'all say, "Yeah, Special **_**Ed**_**." I'd like to remind you who is writing this story.**

…

**Oops. I just opened a Microsoft Paint… document… thingy.**

**No. Comment. On. My. Specialness.**

* * *

Recap:

"_We'll eat and then rest here for the night."_

"_Won't it be cold?" Gazzy asked._

"_We can all sleep in a heap, like we do when the heater's out in wintertime at home."_

"_O-o-okay," he yawned. "That's always fun. Even when Nudge snores."_

"_I don't snore!"_

"_Yeah, you do."_

"_I REGRET NOTHING!"_

"_You know what? I think we're all just tired. Let's go to bed knowing we're safe for the time being. That we destroyed the enemy - for now, at least." I interrupted them._

"_Okay," they chimed. Then all together, in words and in body, they said, "Goodnight, Max."_

"_Goodnight, Fang, Iggy, Nudge, Gazzy, Angel." We stacked our fists and they curled up together. I settled in a tree branch where I could watch over them. "I'll take first watch."_

* * *

Max POV

By the time the moon was directly overhead, I was almost passed out. So I dropped out of the tree and woke Iggy, who happened to be closest, to take over. "Ack! What the crap, Max?" he whisper-yelled as I kicked him.

"I'm tired. Take over the watch."

"Fine," he grumbled, and reluctantly dragged himself to my branch, settling down. I curled up in his spot in between Fang and Angel, immediately incased in a warm, cozy cocoon. I could see why Iggy was so uneager to move.

I fell asleep in the next instant, but I could feel a prickling on the back of my neck. It made me uneasy, but being in Fang's arms made me feel safe and relaxed enough that I could sleep. But I still couldn't shake the feeling that I was being watched.

* * *

Sam POV:

_Where was the Reaper? Why hadn't he disposed of that wretched Fang yet? He knows I'm not giving him the other half of the pay until he's gone._ Sam wondered. _And who the heck names their child _Fang_ anyway? Probably some crazy old bat in a straight jacket or something._

Sam had stalked Max diligently for a long time now. He had treaded through snow and rain and blistering heat, ducking behind anything and everything that could hide him when she turned 'round. _He_ was the one who knew everything about her. _He_ had worked for that information. _He_ would get the girl, whether the girl liked it or not. It's not like a girl's opinion was worth as much as a man's was. A man like Sam.

He would do whatever it took to steal Max away from that Fang's greedy paws, even if it meant kidnapping his one true love. He'd keep her safe, and if she didn't like him at first, so what? Eventually she'd grow to love him, because he'd be the only living thing she'd see ever again. He watched her and her 'boyfriend' curled up together, sleeping with their 'flock', their little herd of mutants.

That's right. Sam knew that they had wings. He'd been there when they burst from her back. He'd been there to watch her learn to fly. He'd seen the other mutants get their wings, but he was only interested in their leader. He could care less what happened to the others, as long as he got Max and as long as he got to watch Fang's slow and painful death.

He kicked the Eraser who's back he was currently sitting on. It snarled at him, but he wasn't afraid. No, he wasn't afraid. After all, Reaper – Dylan – had given specific orders. "You, you and you. Follow the customer around. Do what he says. Don't harm him. He is, after all, paying well." He'd said, running his fingers through the hundreds of gold coins that Sam had _acquired_. It wasn't like he'd bombed a whole country like France, or anything. Just slit a few throats. And sure some said he wasn't "The brightest crayon in the box," but he got what he wanted.

And what were a few lives for the price of true love? Hardly a price at all. He would've bombed the whole entire continent of Canada for his love. His love burned brighter than the brightest match. Or something like that. He'd heard it in a romantic movie, so he must sound seductive saying it. When he did say it, not think it.

There was just one teensy, itsy bitsy problem: Max's wings. She could go places that he couldn't; she could leave him on the ground and fly away. He couldn't let that happen. He'd have to chain her to a wall in an underground dungeon or something, or maybe even cut off her wings.

She would be his family. He'd never had a family before. He had never known his parents, and grew up in an orphanage until he turned 18. No one had adopted him because no one had ever wanted him. Sam had loved her since he first set eyes on her. He followed her around at first, asking her out like he'd seen other guys do. Again and again she said no, so he'd kept following her. Then she'd gotten scary, like she was about to hit him. He didn't like being hit. So he still followed her, just more secretively.

Then she'd found this… this _Fang_, and Sam had been angry, oh, so very angry. She was _his_, and no one else's. They belonged together.

He'd heard of a person called Reaper, who 'cleaned up people's messes for them'. At first he thought it was a dry-cleaner's or something, and then he'd overheard some people talking. He found out that this Reaper was an assassin, and he could 'put an end' to his problem. It had been fantastic news. Sam had gotten the information, found the killer, and formed a plan for true love all in one go!

Then his plan went sour. Sam hadn't wanted Max to turn into a half-bird. Then Fang had, too. That made him more compatible with Max than Sam was. He hadn't liked it. He hadn't liked it one bit. That didn't mean he would stop loving Max, though. They were meant to be, after all! Sometimes Sam doubted that the universe liked him.

He thought it was playing some sick joke on his life and that whoever, whatever was up there was laughing its butt off at him. He knew that there was something wrong with his mind. He had been to lots of therapists who told him that, but he stopped going when someone told him that therapists were actually rapists (the/rapist) in disguise. He was scared. He didn't like that feeling.

So one day when his the/rapist opened the door, Sam ran him over, bursting out of his padded cell. It had taken a lot of courage, but he did it. Then he dodged all of the evil people with the long, pointy, big needles and burst through the doors, seeing sunlight for the first time in a long time. He had hastily found a sharp piece of metal and cut his jacket, the one that didn't let him move his arms. That's how he'd gotten where he was.

Sam wasn't about to give up now, not after all he'd been through.

* * *

Dylan/Reaper POV:

Sam, that idiot. He had no idea what Dylan had planned. He thought that he would get his own little way, and live happily ever after. Well, Dylan had news for him. Life didn't work that way.

Dylan had his money, and now he was going to do what he wanted with whoever he wanted. That was how things worked with him. Sam wouldn't get his happy ending, and neither would Max. Dylan wanted his revenge on Max. He was going to make her pay. First she would watch every member of her 'flock' die slowly and painfully, saving her beloved Fang for last. After that was taken care of, she would die in the same manner as her flock- slowly and painfully. That took care of almost every person who would be bent on revenge for Max's death.

Dylan decided that he'd better kill Sam, too. He didn't need to be double crossed by the one he was double crossing. He wondered what Sam was doing with the help of three of his Erasers. Probably something pathetic, like stalking Max. Dylan might actually be doing the world a favor by getting rid of him.

Dylan slowly stretched his short, sturdy wings. He'd had them for longer than the flock, but they seemed to fit with their wings, like they were meant to be there. Dylan's wings felt not quite right, like they weren't as seamless as they could be. He shook off his doubts. He was just as good as them, if not better.

He pumped his wings, taking off in no particular direction, just to think. Dylan went slowly; his wings were made for power and lift, as opposed to the flock's long, slender, pretty, and fast ones. He would barely admit to himself that he was jealous of their wings. He had had his almost all of his life, and they didn't agree with him perfectly, like they should, like the whitecoats told him they would. The flock had had theirs for three days tops, and they were grafted like they were born with them.

He'd heard rumors that they were all injected as embryos, and that the shot two years ago just activated the process. Dylan was naturally suspicious, but it made sense. He was injected many, many years ago, but when his wings emerged, they had to be fixed surgically. Something had gone wrong, and they had improved their mistakes. Dylan had been a mistake. They thought he didn't feel, that he wouldn't, didn't care. Since he was going on a killing spree, he may as well take down Itex while he was at it.

They had tortured him for over 50 years. He, Dylan, was 76 years old, stuck in a 26 year old's body. Yes, he had enough rage, determination, and raw power to take down the company that had ruined his life, along with anyone who had done him wrong to anyone who mildly annoyed him. The Erasers would have to go, too. They were his tormenters before he was in charge, so their whole kind had to pay, since the ones who had hurt him were long gone.

He flew toward the sunset, his wings straining, planning what he was going to say to the flock and Sam when he captured them; he would rehearse it later in front of the mirror so that he could get the desired affect. He'd have to plan several backup lines, prepare for Max's sarcasm and quick wit. That girl could think as fast as her tongue was sharp; therefore she could think faster than anyone in the world.

Dylan reached up and rubbed the long, angry scar on his face. He still held a lot of bitterness, and it was centered around that one scar. No one before Max had been able to mar his good looks – the only thing good about his life now – and the fact that she did made him all that more eager to kill her. He knew it was shallow, and he knew it was vain.

Dylan just didn't care.

* * *

**So, a look into the enemy's eyes. I'll try to update next Saturday or Sunday, but as you know, I can't make any promises. This actually makes me kind of pity Dylan and Sam, but mostly Sam. He isn't evil, just mentally insane and sad and mad at the world. Dylan is evil and sad and angry, angry, angry.**

**Till next time.**

**-Lizzie**


	18. Free, For Now

**Sorry for being MIA so long – my dance recital is on 6/4/2011, practicing like crazy. But school is OUT! WHOO!**

**Okay, I've decided to make a story with those short stories in it. It shall be called "Adventures Within BMPB?" and I'll try to get the first short story (I think it'll be the toaster) up when I update next.**

**There will be a long recap, so I'll make this short: Thanks for reviewing, here's the next chapter.**

* * *

*WARNING: LONG* Recap:

_Max POV:_

_By the time the moon was directly overhead, I was almost passed out. So I dropped out of the tree and woke Iggy, who happened to be closest, to take over. "Ack! What the crap, Max?" he whisper-yelled as I kicked him._

"_I'm tired. Take over the watch."_

"_Fine," he grumbled, and reluctantly dragged himself to my branch, settling down. I curled up in his spot in between Fang and Angel, immediately incased in a warm, cozy cocoon. I could see why Iggy was so uneager to move._

_I fell asleep in the next instant, but I could feel a prickling on the back of my neck. It made me uneasy, but being in Fang's arms made me feel safe and relaxed enough that I could sleep. But I still couldn't shake the feeling that I was being watched._

* * *

_Sam POV:_

_He'd heard of a person called Reaper, who 'cleaned up people's messes for them'. At first he thought it was a dry-cleaner's or something, and then he'd overheard some people talking. He found out that this Reaper was an assassin, and he could 'put an end' to his problem. It had been fantastic news. Sam had gotten the information, found the killer, and formed a plan for true love all in one go!_

_Then his plan went sour. Sam hadn't wanted Max to turn into a half-bird. Then Fang had, too. That made him more compatible with Max than Sam was. He hadn't liked it. He hadn't liked it one bit. That didn't mean he would stop loving Max, though. They were meant to be, after all! Sometimes Sam doubted that the universe liked him._

_He thought it was playing some sick joke on his life and that whoever, whatever was up there was laughing its butt off at him. He knew that there was something wrong with his mind. He had been to lots of therapists who told him that, but he stopped going when someone told him that therapists were actually rapists (the/rapist) in disguise. He was scared. He didn't like that feeling._

_So one day when his the/rapist opened the door, Sam ran him over, bursting out of his padded cell. It had taken a lot of courage, but he did it. Then he dodged all of the evil people with the long, pointy, big needles and burst through the doors, seeing sunlight for the first time in a long time. He had hastily found a sharp piece of metal and cut his jacket, the one that didn't let him move his arms. That's how he'd gotten where he was._

_Sam wasn't about to give up now, not after all he'd been through._

* * *

_Dylan POV:_

_They had tortured him for over 50 years. He, Dylan, was 76 years old, stuck in a 26 year old's body. Yes, he had enough rage, determination, and raw power to take down the company that had ruined his life, along with anyone who had done him wrong to anyone who mildly annoyed him. The Erasers would have to go, too. They were his tormenters before he was in charge, so their whole kind had to pay, since the ones who had hurt him were long gone._

_He flew toward the sunset, his wings straining, planning what he was going to say to the flock and Sam when he captured them; he would rehearse it later in front of the mirror so that he could get the desired affect. He'd have to plan several backup lines, prepare for Max's sarcasm and quick wit. That girl could think as fast as her tongue was sharp; therefore she could think faster than anyone in the world._

_Dylan reached up and rubbed the long, angry scar on his face. He still held a lot of bitterness, and it was centered around that one scar. No one before Max had been able to mar his good looks – the only thing good about his life now – and the fact that she did made him all that more eager to kill her. He knew it was shallow, and he knew it was vain._

_Dylan just didn't care._

* * *

Max POV:

I awoke in a warm, feathery, embrace, and I loved every second of it. I wriggled nearer to the warmth and tucked my head in the crook of a neck. A low rumbling started – I realized it was someone chuckling; but the thought slid away from me as two muscular arms wrapped around me, pulling me impossibly closer. I sighed in content.

A snickering in the background ruined the perfect moment-ness. "Getting cozy with Fangy-poo, there? Watch out, he bites!"

Oh! Mental facepalm. Of course my perfect moment would be ruined by none other than Iggy. He was undoubtedly peeved about me waking him up to take the second watch in the middle of the cold night. I reluctantly disentangled myself from Fang and staggered upright, giving him my famous, Maximum Ride you-woke-me-up-this-early-and-didn't-even-make-any-bacon-to-save-your-butt glare. It was second only to my death-glare. Still grinning, he began to make obnoxious jokes.

"Did you have a nice time sleeping with Fang, Maxie?"

"Fangles likes sleeping with Max, isn't that right?"

"Who's afraid of the big, bad vampire? Not Max!"

"Did ya bring any garlic? You couldn't have; Fang wouldn't have slept with you if you did!"

"Better look into some braces, Max! He must've bitten you!"

"If only we had a tomato. You could get some practice on how to suck blood."

"They say it's unhealthy when you believe you're a vampire. Maybe Fang should see a doctor."

"Maybe you should both see a doctor. Or a therapist. You-"

"Oh, yeah? Well, maybe YOU should see a doctor, Igward! All these nasty jokes about people. Tsk, tsk." I finally got him to shut up. "Okay. Wake Nudge up. I'll get Angel and Gazzy." There. He could waste his time trying to get Ms. Motormouth up. Good luck with _that_ in under an hour.

I gently shook Angel. "C'mon, sweetie, it's time to get up," I said, just above a whisper. She yawned and looked at me through bleary eyes.

"Can we go home yet?"

"Soon, baby; soon. Will you get your brother up this morning or should I?"

"Which brother?"

"What?" She only had one brother. What was she talking about?

"Which brother?" she repeated patiently.

"The only brother you have," I replied, puzzled. Did the School really tamper with her mind that much?

"No," she said, "I have three brothers." I waited for her to explain. "I had one brother. Then one of my sisters found her other half. He had a brother. And now the two boys are a part of our family. I have three brothers. Which one do you want me to wake up?"

I have to admit, my throat got a little tight. She was just a six year old, and she understood so much that most adults didn't even begin to comprehend, as blinded by the want for money and power as they are. "Come here." I held my arms out. She obediently walked into them, and I held her tight to me. I ran my hand through her limp curls and tucked her head under my chin. "I love you, you know that, kid?"

"I love you, too, Max," she said, slightly confused, but still willing to do anything to make me happy.

"Why don't you wake up Gazzy, seeing as your other brothers are awake." I gently nudged her in Gazzy's direction. She started walking toward him.

Angel stopped and half turned. "Can we wake him up the fun way?"

I grinned. This was the devious little Angel I knew and loved. "Of course. But you know we can wake him up more… creatively now, with our newfound powers of flight."

Little Angel grinned an evil grin at the plan forming in my mind.

* * *

Gazzy's POV:

The Gasman was having a wonderful dream. He was flying – only this time for real, with his wings – over a large wasteland of scrap metal and things along those lines. The sky was an endless, beautiful blue, and the wind stroked his feathers like a gentle caress.

He swooped down to grab a few wires here, a few other miscellaneous things there. He was going to make a huge bomb, one that could take out a whole city. The next time something came for him and his family, he'd be ready for it.

Then something grabbed Gazzy by one of his feet, and he was being flown without using his wings. The sky turned to angry shades of red and orange, and the wind picked up to a harsh level. He looked up. It was the clown Gazzy had ridden at the circus that had grabbed his foot! He had come to get his revenge! The clown started laughing evilly.

"No! Please! I'm just a boy!" he wailed. That always seemed to work in movies. Then Iggy's clown appeared, and he took a hold of Gazzy's other foot.

But where was Iggy? It wasn't fair that Gazzy was being punished for his deed and not Iggy, too. He let out a strangled scream as he spotted where the clowns were taking him. They were going to drop him head-first into a river of hot, boiling lava! They laughed more and more.

"Goodbye, little birdie!" one said cheerfully, in a horrifying voice. The Gasman was right over the river. They. Let. Go. The laughing rang in his ears, slowly morphing to more familiar tones…

"AHHHHHHHHHH!"

_**SPLASH!**_

Gazzy swam upward until his head broke the surface. He drew in a deep, thankful breath. He was still alive! He wasn't burned up! He opened his eyes, expecting to see a lava filled river, only to find…

A river. But not a flaming, fiery river-of-death. Just a normal river, completely lava-free.

He also found the source of the familiar laughter. It was coming from above, the tinkling laughter from his sisters. His biological ones; he knew that Nudge would never be up this early even if she'd been flown by her feet a couple of miles and dropped face-first into freezing water like he had.

Oh. They were going to pay. "MAX! ANGEL! YOU EVER HEARD OF _'Wake up, Gazzy! Food!'_?"

They giggled at him. "Nope!" Max shouted gleefully down at him. "But now that you're awake, come join us for a flight! Maybe that'll dry your clothes out!" Gazzy groaned and sank down into the water, only to shoot upward out of it after a good kick on a shallow part.

_Sisters._

* * *

Max's POV:

That. Was. _Hilarious!_

I couldn't believe that Gazzy hadn't woken up when Angel and I each grabbed an ankle, flew him to a nearby river, and dropped him in it! So funny!

Sigh. I love messing with my brothers. And sisters. And Fang. What fun it was. _I'm thinking like Angel now,_ I realized. _But she's right. We are all just one big, happy family – blood related or not._

Now we three flew in a tight 'V', with me at the point. We were heading back to camp. I was being all silent and pensive, lost in my thoughts. And then…

_FWAP!_

Gazzy's wing hit me on the head. "Tag; you're it!" he raced away, cackling.

"Oh, you're gonna get it!" I surged after him, a smile plastered on my face. I caught up easily and playfully wacked him back. We frolicked up there for a long time before Fang got curious enough to come and see what we were doing. Or, that's what I thought he was going to do. He never got the chance because as soon as he was level with me, I gave him a maniacal grin. Fang immediately became weary and inched away just a little bit. _Smart boy._

I, the Great Maximum Ride, was it; and the Great Maximum Ride's boyfriend was now going to become it.

_**FWAP!**_

"TAG! FANG'S IT! MOVE IT, PEOPLE, MOVE IT! FLY, FLY, FLY! THE 'IT' IS AFTER US!" I bellowed. Fang, with a Fanglike determination, pursued only me, seeing as I was the one to smack him over the head. I ducked and dived and twirled and weaved through the air and the trees – with mucho de gracefulness, if I do say so myself. I darted past Fang, narrowly avoiding his wings again and again.

Eventually this ruckus was bound to be noticed by even the most unobservant, *cough*IGGY*cough*NUDGE*cough* not to point any fingers. Nope. No finger pointing here. None at all. Anyway, eventually the unobservant looked up, saw us having a jolly old time, and came to do an investigation of their own.

And the Air Tag War had begun. We teamed up after a while: Me and Fang, Nudge and Iggy, and Angel and the Gasman. I know it sounds unfair to be teamed against the small kids, but they were scary good at this – they were small, fast, and could wriggle through seemingly impossible spaces, evading us. True, they weren't the speediest flyers and they didn't have big wings, but they were virtually uncatchable.

But I must say that Fang and I kicked butt. We dive bombed and sneak attacked, and then we nimbly dodged wings here and there when we weren't it. Then the game evolved into hide-and-go-seek-tag-with-partners. It was starting to get ridiculous, but fun nonetheless – even with Angel and Gazzy's size, age, and telepathic advantage.

Several times when Fang and I hid on the ground in the trees we ended up lip locking. The good thing was it sent Gasser and Angel in the opposite direction. The bad news was that if Iggy found us, he would crack some… inappropriate jokes. (Pfft. 'Inappropriate' was the understatement of the year.) Then we'd calmly get back into the air after fixing our appearances, acting like we hadn't just been making out in a forest.

I was pretty sure that we didn't fool them.

Finally, hours later, exhausted and starving, we collapsed in a heap on the ground. "Uhh. I'm going to be sore tomorrow," I groaned. They gave various sounds of agreement.

"Food," Iggy moaned. "FOOOOD."

"What are you, a zombie?" Fang was splayed out on a shady rock.

"Watch it, vampy, or I'll come after your BRAINS." He turned to me, whining, "Ma-ax! FOOD!"

I grunted. "Yeah, yeah. I'm on it." I forced myself up into a standing position. "OK, flock, let's get some food and then we can come back here and get some sleep."

We rose into the cool, night air, working as one. We flew to the closest fast food place, some burger joint, and ordered to eat there. I'm sure we looked questionable – dirty and scuffed up as we were – but they took our money and gave us our abnormal amount of food, so no complaints.

We each had at least two burgers, two large fries, a large drink and a salad. At least – Angel got that, the rest of us got a that and a bit more. Squeezing into a booth, (Fang, Angel, Iggy in one side; Me, Gazzy, Nudge in the other) we tore into our food, wonderful food! That Ice Age song will be forever engraved in my memory since Angel dragged me to the movie theater. We ate – no, devoured – in silence, because who knew when we would get to eat again?

The flock and I were throwing our stuff away after gobbling down our meals and going to the bathroom when we heard from our old pals the evil dude and the psychopath.

AKA: Dylan and Sam, in that order. What joy.

They ruined our perfectly good night by showing up, _yet again_, in our lives, and trying, _yet again_, to kill us. Only this time they brought a whole fleet of Erasers.

Oh, the _joy_. I'm practically bursting with it; can you tell?

In fact, the pure _joy_ just about exploded in me when the Erasers swarmed the building like bees on sno-cone syrup. Then to add to the excitement, they duct taped us all, threw us in the back of a dirty moving van, and slammed the metal door shut.

Do you see how _joyful_ this whole scenario was for me?

P.S. If you didn't know that was sarcasm, you're an idiot. No offense.

* * *

**Sigh. I love sarcasm. It's an art, which I have down very well. I think it's programmed into my teenager-ness or something. Whatever. I'll try to update sometime around 6/11/2011. Review, plz!  
**

**-Lizzie**


	19. To Wrap it Up

**I slept in until one today – I feel very accomplished. The dance recital went awesome – thanks to all who wished me luck – and I went on a writing spree today! I did this chapter of BMPB? (Be My Pretend Boyfriend, in case someone didn't catch that), re-wrote/edited "Dylan's Flying Lessons", wrote "Puppy's Trip to the Vet", wrote a chapter of "Adventures Within BMPB?". Sadly, there will be only two more chapters in this story – this one and the epilogue. :'( Tear.**

**Truth be told, I could probably have written this whole story in about three days with no interruptions. It just depends on how I feel that day. If I feel like writing, I can write lots and lots of good stuff. If I don't feel like writing, but make myself, either A) I get into the writing mood, or B) my writing turns out crap. What happens is about 50/50. In other words, I can never tell which is going to happen, and I can't control it. Like the very rare urge to clean my room.**

**Oh, and to answer a question: I have absolutely no idea what the Z stands for in ZOMG. I Googled it and it said it was a typo or something like that.**

**Anyway, enjoy!**

* * *

Recap:

_The flock and I were throwing our stuff away after gobbling down our meals and going to the bathroom when we heard from our old pals the evil dude and the psychopath._

_AKA: Dylan and Sam, in that order. What joy._

_They ruined our perfectly good night by showing up,_ yet again, _in our lives, and trying,_ yet again_, to kill us. Only this time they brought a whole fleet of Erasers._

_Oh, the_ joy. _I'm practically bursting with it; can you tell?_

_In fact, the pure_ joy _just about exploded in me when the Erasers swarmed the building like bees on sno-cone syrup. Then to add to the excitement, they duct taped us all, threw us in the back of a dirty moving van, and slammed the metal door shut._

_Do you see how_ joyful _this whole scenario was for me?_

_P.S. If you didn't know that was sarcasm, you're an idiot. No offense._

* * *

So, once again, we were captured. Fabulous. They even managed to duct tape our wings tight to our backs, wrapping the stuff around our chests to keep them immobilized. Fan-freaking-tastic. They didn't even give us the distraction to talk to each other, taping our mouths shut. But then, maybe that wasn't so bad in Nudge's case.

Too bad those goons didn't know that duct tape was all too easy to get off of your mouth. I stuck my tongue out as best as I could and started wetting the tape with my saliva, licking more and more of the tape as it peeled off. Eventually the tape got too moist to stick, and I pushed it off with my tongue, wiping my mouth on my shoulder.

"Okay, flock," I whispered, "we need a plan. But first to get the tape off of your mouths. Use your spit to make it un-stick."

Nudge was the first to get her tape off; you could tell she'd been the most anxious to regain the ability to talk out of all of us. She sat, dramatically yet quietly gasping. "Breathe!" she exclaimed. "I can BREATHE! More importantly, I can _SPEAK!_"

Ugh. At least she's forced to be quiet for risk of the Erasers hearing us in the front of the van. The rest of the flock got their tape off and we huddled together, talking almost silently, forming a plan. What was the plan? I'll give you a hint: it involved conquering the School. Permanently.

You'll find out soon enough. And when you do, we'll be free.

The rest of the bumpy ride we spent trying to chew one another's bonds off. It was Nudge's idea, and a good one at that; our teeth just weren't sharp enough for the thickness of the layers of gray stickiness. They had really wrapped the stuff around our wrists over and over and over. So all we got were soggy wrists and a bad taste in our mouths – literally. Iggy let us know that the tape tasted gray.

After what seemed like hours later – long after my butt fell asleep (_so _not fun) – the van bounced to a stop and we were allowed *cough*FORCED*cough* to get out and stand up. They marched us back to the School, back to Hell on Earth. This time we were put in cages in pairs, with just enough room to almost stretch a leg out. I was paired with Fang, (predictably) Angel with Gazzy, (predictably) and Nudge with Iggy (let's just say it was all very predictable).

First the cheap padlocks, and now they were so dang cheap that they 'conserved space' by putting cramped experiments into even more cramped cages? What next? Were they going to start 'conserving food' by telling us to eat one another or die? Will they make us resort to cannibalism?

I was getting too paranoid for my own good. Either that or I was just paranoid enough. I ended up curled Fang's warm, strong embrace, letting a much needed sleep overtake me. I lost consciousness to Fang's heartbeat, and I couldn't help but think: _if I wasn't locked in a cage and in mortal danger right now, I'd be in paradise._

What was that annoying sound? I thought it sounded a bit like a voice, but not the one in my head. It was almost familiar, not just the voice, but the noise that it was making, too.

"Max. Ma-ax. Max! Max, Max, Max, Max, Max!" It was starting to become unpleasant until a different voice spoke my name.

"Max," it murmured, softly, lovingly. A gentle but firm hand shook my shoulder, pulling me further into the waking world. It felt that for the first time in a long time I was the one being taken care of as opposed to taking care of others. It was nice. But duty called, and so I opened my eyes.

Two gold-flecked, midnight eyes came into focus: Fang.

I blinked. "Hi."

One corner of his mouth turned up slightly. "Yo. Welcome back from the land of the dead."

"I was really conked out, huh?" I asked.

"Yeah, you really were," he agreed. "But that's okay. You've got a cute snore." He winked, and my heart fluttered pitifully in my chest.

I smiled and brushed the hair that had flopped over his eye back. Then I leaned over and kissed his cheek, brushing my lips against his ear (enjoying his slight shiver), "I wouldn't mind waking up next to you more often."

"It is nice," he nodded, "in spite of the cage. But I would mind if we didn't get out of here. I love you, Max." I nuzzled his neck.

"I should be panicking or squealing right now, but I can't bring myself to. It's so natural being around you, being with you. I love you too." I looked up to see a smile – a real, world stopping, dizzying, mind blowing smile – on Fang's face.

"Yo, lovebirds! It's nice to see that you're so disgustingly in love, but if you don't mind… escaping here!" Iggy always has to ruin the moment, doesn't he?

I awkwardly pulled away from Fang, clearing my throat and ignoring the excited squealing coming from Nudge and Angel. "Right. Iggy, the locks?"

"Way ahead of you," he smirked, pushing the door to his and Nudge's cage open. "Now try yours."

I shoved the cage door and watched in disbelief as it swung open. "Iggy, for once… for once you're awesome."

"Why thank y– hey! I'm always awesome! Anyway, those dorks don't even have the common sense to change the locks after I've picked them once already! Haha, losers! Gazzy, Angel, try yours."

Once we were all out of our cages, we went on to operation: BDTS. AKA: operation Bring Down The School.

The flock and I quickly located an air vent and wasted no time scampering along through it like rats through a maze. Only this time we were creating our own maze, and we knew all its tricks. We soon reached the room we were looking for – I could tell because it had the master computer. It was empty.

I kicked the vent out and we dropped one by one into the control center. "Nudge, see what you can do." I said. "Find out everything you can."

We stood in several minutes of silence except for the breathing of six bird kids and the frantic typing of keys. It was broken by Nudge's gasp.

"What?" I asked. "What did you find?"

She turned to me with an amazed smile on her face. "We can take them down. Get this: there are tens of Schools all over the world, and this one, of all places, _this one_ is the major control. The head honcho. In other words, we take this building down, we destroy the whole organization, like ants or bees and their queen. Was that poor planning on their part or what?"

I grinned, ecstatic. "No one will ever go through what we went through again. We will be victorious! Erase the memory, Nudge. Delete everything."

Iggy and the Gasman had huddled up in a corner of the room, fiddling with some wires. It should've concerned me more what they were doing, but it didn't.

"I've erased all of the files. Now I'm sending a virus through the whole system to wipe it clean, and it looks like the bug will connect to all School computers around the world! They really are stupid, aren't they? The craftsmanship is terrible. Almost as if they never expected anyone to try and stop them."

"They probably didn't," I reasoned. "After all, they're a secret, powerful, illegal company with high security. They consider all of their experiments – the only ones with a chance to stop them – incompetent, so in their minds, who could destroy them?"

"There's something that we haven't thought of," Angel piped up. "Won't they be mad and come after us for wrecking them? We won't be able to go home."

I frowned. "We'll figure something ou-" I was interrupted by the door being broken down by none other than our fluffy buddies, the Erasers!

"About time that you joined the party! After all, it's your going away celebration," I laughed cruelly. "And you'll be going away all right. Forever." Okay, a bit sinister for me, but I was not going to be killed on the day of my freedom, darn it!

Meanwhile, Iggy and Gazzy finished whatever they were doing and threw something at the back wall. "Hit the dirt!" the Gasman yelled.

I'd learned enough by now that when Iggy or Gazzy said to hit the dirt, you hit the dirt. I dove under a table and curled into a ball, feeling Fang wrap around me from behind and cover my face with one of his hands.

A bone-jarring **BOOM!** shook the building and Fang and I slowly crawled out from the debris. "Everyone okay?" I called. "Report!"

"We're fine!" Nudge coughed, looking like she'd been covered in flour. She moved aside to reveal a slightly ruffled but otherwise fine six year old. The tight feeling in my chest loosened a little.

"That was _awesome!_" Iggy and Gasser slapped high fives, powdered white. I sighed in relief. They were fine. I surveyed the rest of the room.

There wasn't much to see. Almost everything had gotten blown to shreds except for us. The Erasers were not so lucky. The bomb had done its job, because there was a gaping hole in the back wall.

"I think we should get out of here," Iggy skittered nervously, glancing toward the spot he and Gazzy had been meddling in. "Right now."

I nodded in agreement, resigned to the fact that he and Gazzy had undoubtedly done _something _that we really shouldn't stick around for.

"Okay. U&A. guys. It's time to go home." I jumped out of the building, enjoying the sensation of free falling for a few seconds before snapping out my wings and shooting upwards. My flock soon joined me, and we started home; don't ask me how I knew what direction to go, because I couldn't explain. Some invisible force was just pulling me in the right direction. Soon the School was the size of a walnut below us. It was peaceful until…

_**BOOM!**_

The earth-shattering explosion was strong enough that we could feel it this high in the air. The School – not to mention everything within a ten-mile radius – was wiped clean off of the face of the earth. I sighed in exasperation, looking accusingly at the two pyromaniacs in my flock. They blinked innocently. "Oops?"

I rolled my eyes. "'Oops' is right." But I just couldn't bring myself to care. "Oh, well. At least we don't have to worry about being hunted to our deaths." I rubbed my forehead and started flying toward home again.

* * *

Hours later, six exhausted bird kids landed on the front steps of a mansion, unlocked the door, and collapsed in the living room to wake up at 1:00 PM the next day and finally, _finally_ be able to get on with their lives as normal.

Well, as normally as you could when you had giant wings sprouting out of your back and a crippling claustrophobia.

* * *

**That was the final chapter, people! Now all we have left is the epilogue. *sniff* :'(**

**I've enjoyed having you as readers and I'd like to let you know that I read every single review I ever got and took them all to heart. Yes, even the ones that just said "cool" or "update". Thank you for liking my story.**

**My NU will be around the 13****th,**** but I'll try to get it up sooner. Love you all! **

**Sincerely,**

**Lizzie**


	20. Epilogue

**Okay, before you all skin me alive for updating waaaay after promised, I shall attempt to come up with a legitimate excuse…**

**…**

**But I can't seem to find one… All I can tell you is that I'm **_**extremely**_** sorry and that I've been really lazy this summer, so updating is slower for everything because I can't seem to drag my lazy butt off the sofa to write. (If only I had a laptop. Then again I recently found the notebook that I sometimes write in for when I do not have access to my PC. It was under my dresser. :P)**

**HAPPY 4****TH****!**

**Disclaimer: As the author of this FanFiction, I can honestly say that I own nothing Maximum Ride or any other Lizzie-no-owny book/TV show/movie/whatever thing I may have referred to.**

* * *

Recap:

"_I think we should get out of here," Iggy skittered nervously, glancing toward the spot he and Gazzy had been meddling in. "Right now."_

_I nodded in agreement, resigned to the fact that he and Gazzy had undoubtedly done_ something_ that we really shouldn't stick around for._

"_Okay. U&A. guys. It's time to go home." I jumped out of the building, enjoying the sensation of free falling for a few seconds before snapping out my wings and shooting upwards. My flock soon joined me, and we started home; don't ask me how I knew what direction to go, because I couldn't explain. Some invisible force was just pulling me in the right direction. Soon the School was the size of a walnut below us. It was peaceful until…_

**BOOM!**

_The earth-shattering explosion was strong enough that we could feel it this high in the air. The School – not to mention everything within a ten-mile radius – was wiped clean off of the face of the earth. I sighed in exasperation, looking accusingly at the two pyromaniacs in my flock. They blinked innocently. "Oops?"_

_I rolled my eyes. "'Oops' is right." But I just couldn't bring myself to care. "Oh, well. At least we don't have to worry about being hunted to our deaths." I rubbed my forehead and started flying toward home again._

* * *

_Hours later, six exhausted bird kids landed on the front steps of a mansion, unlocked the door, and collapsed in the living room to wake up at 1:00 PM the next day and finally, _finally _be able to get on with their lives as normal._

_Well, as normally as you could when you had giant wings sprouting out of your back._

* * *

We'd been gone three months since that day at the carnival. It seemed an eternity ago.

The School was no more. No one would ever be created or harmed there again. At first we all felt bad about the experiments' demise, but Angel and Nudge told us that even if we hadn't gone and exploded them, their expiration dates were close. If by any odd chance they weren't retired by the built in code, they were slated for extermination. The poor things would've been chained to a wall and had Erasers released. If we had had time to unlock their cages, they wouldn't have gotten far without the power of flight. Only one or two had wings, and they were so sickly it was a wonder their hearts were still beating.

Fang and Iggy went back to their apartment, but they were at our house so much anyone would think that they lived here. Actually, they would live here when we had the second floor ready for them. Angel (of course) brought it up, and as awkward as it could've been for Fang and me with the whole 'girlfriend moves in with boyfriend, not the other way around', it wasn't.

After about a little more than a week of trying to settle back in, "we" decided to go to Disney World. This is how it happened:

* * *

Yesterday

"_Hey, Max?" Uh oh._

"_Yes, Angel?_

_Here we go. What am I getting into now? "Can we go to Disney World?" Angel was a smart kid, I'd give her that. She said it where the whole flock could hear. And she knew that the whole flock would want to go._

_Gazzy, Nudge, and Iggy stopped what they were doing and crowded around me, begging and pleading along with Angel to go to Disney World. That gave Fang – the smart one – time to slip into a corner and turn invisible, literally. It was another one of our powers, which were developing quickly. Crap. Now I couldn't push the decision onto him. If only I could've gotten that power and slipped away unnoticed…_

_I squeezed my eyes closed. Invisible… Invisible… Invisible… Come on, freaky mutant powers, work for me here! I opened one eye a slit to peer at the rest of the flock, who were watching me strangely. I'm guessing it didn't work._

"_It didn't work."_

"_What did I say about eavesdropping on people's thoughts without permission?" I bet most big sisters or mothers have never said that. 'What did I say about talking when I'm on the phone?', sure. 'What did I say about sitting on the dog?', sure. But 'What did I say about eavesdropping on people's thoughts without permission?', no. No way._

_The flock's begging went up a notch. Iggy even got down on his knees and wrapped his arms around my ankles._

"_Please, Max, PLEASE!"_

"_I'll be good!"_

"_No bombs! I promise!"_

"I WON'T LET GO OF YOUR FEET UNLESS WE CAN GO!"

_They all gave me the Bambi eyes at once. Free will… Weakening… Angel's eyes started to water, Gazzy's lip trembled; Nudge was sniffling. Iggy still had my legs in a bear hug._

_Oh my gosh. I can't believe I'm going to say this._

_Angel's entire face lit up and she jumped several feet in the air. "_YES!_ WE CAN GO!"_

_Nudge and the Gasman started bouncing around with her, cheering. I looked at Iggy, who was celebrating on the ground. "Iggy, please release my feet from your passionate embrace."_

_Fang walked around a corner, spotted quite the interesting sight – Angel, Gazzy, and Nudge hopping around in delight, me rubbing my temples and muttering, and Iggy with my ankles in a death grip, starting to cut off the circulation, no doubt – and just backed around the corner again._

"_Thanks for that, Fang," I called after him._

* * *

We rented a huge, luxurious (not to mention expensive) hotel suite with three bedrooms and bathrooms, a kitchen, a main room with TV and sofa, and an equally luxurious balcony with a giant Jacuzzi hot tub. It was perfect for takeoffs and landings. We shipped our stuff through the post office a few days before leaving. Honestly, we weren't going to lug all of that stuff with us in the air, and why would we waste time and money on plane tickets when we had perfectly good wings on our backs?

The flock and I landed in an abandoned ally a few blocks away. (If there were any thugs or gangs or other shady figures, we probably scared them off. Honestly, even if you were all dangerous and illegal, it'd scare the you-know-what out of you if some winged people – resembling angels – dropped right out of the sky, would you stay to see what was going on?) It was already dark out, and we started our walk to the hotel.

When we arrived, we checked in and went to our suite. Gazzy and Angel were quick to claim separate rooms. Iggy headed over to his partner in crime, and Nudge dashed to Angel's side.

That left Fang and I to share the last one, which wasn't anything to complain about if only Iggy would keep his trap shut.

"Be good, now! Use protection!" he said sternly.

"Iggy!" I scolded, looking pointedly at Angel and the Gasman.

"Oops."

"Yeah. Oops." I glanced at the angelic siblings. "Don't ever listen to Iggy." They nodded, slightly confused, but knew not to ask since it was Iggy who said it.

The next day, we had a normal breakfast (if you can call that much food "normal") using the complimentary eggs, bacon, toast, and pancake batter supplied, cooked Iggy-style. As sexist and obnoxious as he was, that boy could cook.

Fast forwarding through the normal morning routine – everyone going for the food all at once, fights over random, stupid things, some inappropriate jokes from Iggy and glares from me – we ducked into a nearby alley (Stranger Danger!) and took off, flying high enough to not be seen as quickly as possible. When we reached Disney World, we landed and headed in as if we weren't super-powered mutants.

Disney World was crowded, hot, and expensive, the lines were long… so, basically a normal amusement park. Iggy was looking around hungrily, drinking the sights in; Angel, Gazzy, and Nudge were excitedly pestering all of the Disney characters walking around; Fang and I were just going with the flow, happy that the flock was happy, and going on a few roller coasters with Iggy. (We wore our bathing suits under our clothes for any water rides.)

After a long, exhausting, fun day at Disney's Animal Kingdom Park, I was ready to curl up and sleep for a week. Sadly, I couldn't do that, seeing as we were still in this seemingly alternate universe. To think that we had five more days of this! One day for each of the water/theme parks. But the best day by far was the last – Magic Kingdom Park. I know what you're thinking. How un-Max-like!

Iggy, Nudge, Gazzy and Angel slipped away in the crowd as Fang took my hand and pulled me through the endless ocean of people. "Where are the others?" I asked worriedly. I was a bit paranoid, but I think I have a reason to be after the whole crazy-scientists-kidnap-us-and-graft-wings-on-our-backs fiasco.

"They're fine. Probably getting something to eat." He smirked at me. "I think Nudge and Iggy are big enough to take care of the kids by now. Well, they are legally." A hint of a smile crept onto my face as he led me to a deserted place behind a building. "C'mon." He'd spread his wings, about to take off.

"Fang!" I whisper-yelled. What was he doing? "Do you know how many people there are here?"

"Relax," he said. "Nobody's here, and if someone does see us… we got rid of the School, right?" Fang walked toward me, closer and closer as I backed up. "So what's the problem?" My back hit a wall. Fang was pressed up against me, so close I could almost feel his heartbeat. Well, crap. "Just this once?" His breath fanned over my face, his Fang-smell overwhelming me. Fang's face was right there, and I couldn't focus on anything else. My eyes fluttered shut.

Then Fang was gone, and I glared at him as he unfurled his wings and took off. I grudgingly followed, trying (and failing) to be annoyed at him. Higher and higher we flew, Disney World a colorful swirl of lights glittering in the darkness. I didn't realize where he was leading me – looking back on it I know that I really should've – until we were there. The top of Cinderella's castle.

We landed, folding our wings in and gazing at the ant-sized tourists swarming below. I wondered idly if we could spot the rest of the flock, or vice versa. Then Fang was in front of me, chasing away all thoughts. He grasped my hands in his larger, calloused ones. Fang stared deeply – intimately – into my eyes, searching. And he did the last thing I expected.

"Marry me?"

I was so shocked that all I could do was gape at him, eyes wide. I opened and closed my mouth, trying to speak, but only succeeded in looking like a fish. So I asked the first thing that came to mind.

"Aren't you supposed to be on one knee?" _Why did I say that? Stupid, stupid, stupid!_ A small smirk slid across Fang's features, and he slid fluidly down in front of me, taking out a beautiful ring. _So that's what Nudge bought on her particularly pricey 'shopping spree', 'borrowing' Fang to carry her bags._

"Better?" I nodded mutely. Fang? And me? Me and Fang? As in, _Me & Fang_? And so I thought.

I thought [very un-Max-ly] over what I was feeling about this, about _him_, right now. I thought about the past months, of all we'd been through. I thought about how the flock seemed complete with him and Iggy, how my life was complete (I am such a sap.) with him in it. But most importantly I thought about the rest of my life with him. My mother once told me that if I could see myself growing old with that person, having their children, coming home to them or them to me, that he was the one. Sure we were young, but the engagement could, _would_ last a while; all that mattered was that I was his and he was mine. I gave him the only answer that made sense.

"Yes."

Fang slipped the ring on my finger. He pulled my lips to his, wrapping his arms around my waist and crushing me against his chest. My hands tangled in his silky hair as I kissed him back deeply.

We were blissfully oblivious to our dear flock, who were hiding on the other side, listening to our every word.

Looks like happy, clichéd endings weren't as fake [and rare] as I thought they were.

* * *

**I hope that last scene wasn't too mushy. I don't like it when Fang's all like, "Oh, Max, I lurve you, I'd diiiiie without you, blah, blah, Nudge Moment." And then Max responds,**

"**Oh, Fangles, I lurve you more, don't ever pull an Edward Cullen and leave me because I'd diiie, blah, sob, cry, cry, sob, sappy emotion overload, blah, even longer Nudge Moment." Smooch.**

**I've never actually been to Disney World. :( All my friends have been. I had to Google it to even see if it had roller coasters; how sad is that? I feel so… so… so un-American! I **_**REALLY**_** want to go!**

**(Please don't give me any grief about the American comment. I honestly don't know if people from other countries want to go there/have been there. I'm naïve about that particular thing.)**

**Anyway, thanks for sticking with me! I'll finish "Adventures Within BMPB?" shortly, and "Just A Fairy Tale" too. I'm in the process of writing a new story. The first chapter will be up sometime this year, hopefully. :) It'll be a lot better than this (hopefully), now that I have a grasp on the whole FanFiction thing.**

**-Lizzie**


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